And this we have not today!
Just a little insight:
One of these friars was a young Spaniard by the name of Saint Vincent Ferrer, a native of Valencia, who supposedly spoke Limousin the local dialect. The Biographers of Ferrer tell of his ministry reaching and converting people all over Western Europe, many in isolated areas. He was reported to have been understood in the Alpine regions and other parts of Switzerland, in Brittany and Fanders, in the Savoy and Lyons, by people who know only the local tongue. While in Genoa he spoke to a group of men and women of mixed linguistic backgrounds, all of whom were said to have heard him in their own language. The Catholic Encyclopedia notes that many biographers of Saint Vincent have held that he was endowed with the Gift of tongues. This is perhaps the closest parallel of Acts the second chapter that we find recorded in early Church History.
“Soon following Luther came the French sect known as the Jansenists. This group arose in the Roman Catholic Church after the Council of Trent and was subjected to persecution following the issuance in 1705 of a bill condemning them. After persecution began, speaking in tongues was reported among this group.”
In this same period of time the Encyclopedia Britannica tells of tongues “among the converts of Wesley and Whitefield.” John Wesley once wrote a protest against a Dr. Middleton who wrote “after the Apostolic time, there is not, in all history, one instance…of any person who had even exercised that gift (tongues).” Wesley replied, “Sir, your memory fails you again, it has been heard more than once no further off than the valleys of Dauphiny.
Another movement that displayed Pentecostal characteristics developed in England during the seventeenth century. They were called the Society of Friends or Quakers. W.C. Braithwaite, in “The Message and Mission of Quakerism,” quotes from Burrough’s preface to Great Mystery:
“While waiting upon the Lord in silence, as often we did for many hours together, we received often the pouring down of the Spirit upon us, and our hearts were glad and our tongues
loosed and our mouth opened, and we spake with new tongues as the Lord gave us utterance, and as His Spirit led us, which was poured down upon us, on sons and daughters, and the glory of the Father was revealed. And then began we to sing praise to the Lord God Almighty and to the Lamb forever “
Of all the groups mentioned during the Reformation, none has received as much notice as the Irvingites, a sect which developed in Great Britain about 1825. Edward Irving, a popular Presbyterian minister in London played an important role in the movement. When several demonstrations of religious enthusiasm occurred in his services, he encouraged them, believing they were of divine origin.
“The Gift of Tongues” was soon to follow and became a part of his services. A strong faction formed against Irving and his followers and ultimately they were turned away from the Presbyterian Church, The result was the formation of the Catholic Apostolic Church, often called “Irvingites” because of the leadership of Edward Irving. This body wrote a “tongues” tenet in its theology.”
Back in England, the report of tongues began to appear in the wake of the preaching campaigns of Dwight L. Moody. Dr. R. Boyd, who was a very close friend of the famous evangelist writes concerning one instance:
When I got to the rooms of the Young Men’s Christian Association in Victoria Hall, London, I found the meeting on fire: The young men were speaking in tongues, prophesying.
As the nineteenth century come to a close, space limits me from listing all the instances of tongues that took place. In 1875 R.B. Swan writes that he and others spoke in tongues. 1879 – W.J. Walthall also receives the baptism of the Holy Spirit, speaking in tongues. In 1880 in Kara Kara, Armenia a strong Pentecostal Movement breaks out with speaking in tongues. The same year tongues is reported in Switzerland, and on and on. This also includes the revival of Topeka Kansas in the 1900’s. All of them are a part of the vast spreading movement of the spirit of God as these last days grow to a close. No one can deny that there is definite historical proof to the presence of tongues in the Church throughout the centuries. God has always had a people called out for his namesake. His word has always been a part of the hearts of men, and so it continues today.