Tongues and Other Miraculous Gifts in the Second Through Nineteenth Centuries, Part 3: From the 5th to the 13th Centuries
Alexander Mackie, in a work intended to discredit the gift of tongues, observed that “the Middle Ages were characterized by a number of religious movements, all of which had motor characterized by speaking in tongues.”58 While many of the visionaries of the Middle Ages may have spoken in tongues, it is certain that they would not have publicized the fact, since it had become the official position of the Roman Catholic Church that the ability to speak in tongues was a sign of demon possession. The Rituale Romanum, the official Catholic book of public services which, for the most part, came to its present form around A.D. 1000, states, “Signs of possession are the following: ability to speak with some facility in a strange tongue or to understand it when spoken by another; the faculty of divulging future and hidden events; display of powers which are beyond the subject’s age and natural condition; and various other indications which, when taken as a whole, pile up the evidence.”59
Despite the Roman Catholic exclusion of tongues, there are scattered reports of the gift of tongues in the Roman Catholic Church throughout the Middle Ages. Historian Stanley M. Burgess has observed that although the Roman Catholic Church condemned the ability to speak in an unknown language and to interpret it as evidence of demon possession, it also honored a few of its more renowned saints for speaking in tongues. In many cases tongues were among the miracles listed on behalf of such people in the canonization process. According to Burgess, the test for determining whether the gift of tongues was a sign of demonic possession depended upon the orthodoxy of the individual in question.60 It is likely that an equally important factor in this determination would have been the depth of the devotion to God of the person under consideration.
Hildegard of Bingen
Among the medieval mystic women that we have mentioned, it is certain that Hildegard of Bingen (A.D. 1098-1179) had the gift of tongues. It was reported by her early biographers that at times she miraculously became able to speak and write Latin without ever having had instruction in that language.61 She also spoke in an unknown tongue, some of the words of which had been written down and have come down to us. Nine hundred words of this unknown language were recorded in an alphabet of unfamiliar character.62 She also sang in unknown tongues, and her biographer referred to these occasions as concerts.63
Of course, Hildegard had many other prophetic gifts. People of all kinds came from everywhere to consult her, and her letters are full of prophecies and warnings. At Cologne, Trier and elsewhere, she addressed select representatives of the clergy, disclosing to them the divine warnings that she had received in various situations. Her correspondence was voluminous, and she did not hesitate to write to heads of state and high ecclesiastical authorities. Among the people with whom she corresponded were Bernard of Clairvaux, Elizabeth of Shoenau, and Frederick Barbarossa, to whom she wrote:
O king, it is very needful that thou be foreseeing in thy affairs. For, in mystic vision, I see thee living, small and insensate, beneath the Living Eyes (of God). Thou hast still some time to reign over earthly matters. Therefore beware lest the Supreme King cast thee down for the blindness of thine eyes, which do not rightly see how thou holdest the rod of right government in thy hand. See also to it that thou art such that the grace of God may not be lacking in thee.64
Many miracles of healing are associated with Hildegard, including that of Arnold, who had been an opponent of hers until he was miraculously healed at her church.65
Category: Church History, Spring 1999
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