Luther, Zwingli and Calvin, could all safely be said to be literary men of an academic (if not always a balanced) temperament. Although Luther at times demonstrated mystical qualities of mind and thought, in the end it was the professor and biblical exegete who prevailed over the prophet in him.

It was undoubtedly not their intention, but the "reformers" the movment which they initiated, far from leading only to a sober and "reformed" communion of believers dedicated to the principles of sola scriptura, sola fidei, soli deo gloria, was nearly overshadowed by individuals who claimed to be illuminated and led by the Holy Spirit.

 The hyper-individualism of the reformers essentially created a chain reaction which, in a few decades, would lead to hideous civil wars in Germany and among the Swiss cantons, and a terrible reaction on the part of the nobility against the peasants:

The first movement of this nature to arise among the followers of the "reformers" were the Anabaptists. The name "Anabaptist" derives from their insistence on the rebaptism of adults. The movement itself began with the appearance of the so-called "prophets of Zwickau" , Thomas Munzer and Nicholas Storch, in 1520. They were at first welcomed by Luther in his struggle against Rome, but Luther was soon after to denounce them and their followers with some of the strongest invective of which he was capable:

Whatever "inspirations of the Holy Spirit" that Luther and the other "reformers" may have claimed at the beginning of their revolt against Rome, quickly gave way to a harsh reaction against the Anabaptists, both in a theological and political sense. The excesses of these sectarians and their followers, who were made up largely of the peasant class caused Luther himself , on occasion, to despair of ever organizing the forces he had unleashed into a united front against Rome. No doubt Luther’s encouragement to the German nobility to slaughter, burn and exterminate the "thieving hordes of peasants" was due to their predilection for the Anabaptist sect and the millenarian message of the prophets of Zwickau.

The Anabaptists shared many traits in common with later movements which were to arise within prostestantism, such as the Pentecostals:

J. Massyngbe-Ford documents similar tendencies among the so-called Type-I Pentecostals:

No doubt it was in part due to this radical reliance on private inspiration and revelations that the Anabaptists and other like minded groups would eventually fall into the utopianism so characteristic of religious groups which seeks to be guided exclusively by charismatic authority.

(Interestingly enough, the commune they established in the city of Munster, of which the notorious John of Leyden was named "King", was called "New Sion." As we shall see, a future religious commune named "New Sion" will have important connections to the beginnings of Pentecostalism.)

Owing to their supression in the wake of the peasant’s rebellion, the Anabaptists were dispersed throughout Europe, and many elements of their teaching live on (in a kinder, gentler fashion) in groups such as the Mennonites.

 This was the fly in the ointment for the "Reformers" insofar as their theory of private judgment with regards to the Scriptures was concerned. The Anabaptists and similar sects from the very beginning were using this theory to justify the most outrageous practices and accept the wildest millenarian prophecies. Many of their number were convinced, via the prophecies of their leaders, that the Parousia was imminent.

Faced with such abuses, the Reformers ultimately had to establish a "magisterium" which based itself on their own exegesis of Scripture, and thus, the churches of the Reformation were to become more and more institutionalized as time went on. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that John Calvin was a "cessationalist"-maintaining that virtually all of the charisms ceased in the post-apostolic Church once the canon of Scripture had been established. Such notions are characteristic of strict Calvinists down to our own day. When one studies the history of early pentecostalism, one is struck by the strident and condemnatory attitudes of the "conservative" protestant theologians of the day.

 THE QUAKERS

While such ignorance is certainly not justified, I would venture to guess that most people today have derived their ideas about Quakers mainly from a smiling face on a cereal box. However, the original Quaker, George Fox, was in his own day anything but non-controversial:

At any rate, the most prominent doctrine of Fox and the Quakers is that of the inner light, a kind of "spark of divinity" within each human being, which is to be listened to and heeded, above and beyond the teaching and traditions of any church, or even of Scripture itself. It is obvious that Fox’s final appeal was to subjective religious experience, as is that of most persons who claim to have their whole lives guided by the Holy Spirit. Some of the manifestations among the Quakers are quite similar to those which one witnesses today at the so-called "revivals":

Whether or no the Quakers derived any of their rigorism from the Anabaptists, they certainly resemble them in their enthusiasm, and in the effects it produces-warnings, exorcisms, judgments, miraculous healings, and so on. ‘There is no doubt Fox was perfectly earnest in believing that he had power both to work miracles and to discern spirits … As the discerning of spirits was a gift claimed by many of the Anabaptists, Fox’s pretensions excited no surprise-‘ Bickley is well inspired in thus calling attention to the milieu in which Fox moved, and its habits of thought. It was only to be expected that, in such a milieu, religious ‘convincments’ would be accompanied and attested by strange spiritual manifestations. ‘I was taken with the Power’, Aldam writes to Fox, ‘in a great trembling in my head, and all of the one side while I was speaking to them.’ And the Lancashire Petition, uncontradicted by Nayler and Fox, claims against the Quakers that ‘Men, women and little children at their meetings are strangely wrought upon in their bodies, and brought to fall, foam at the mouth, roar and swell in their bellies.’ (Knox, opus cit., pge 150)

Glossalalia, or tongue speaking, was also reported to have occurred quite frequently in the early days of Quakerism. The Quakers are now known as the Society of Friends.

 The French Prophets, Camisards, or Cevennes, as they were known (since they wore a black shirt, or camise, while prophesying, and were from the Cevennes region of France) were a sect of Huguenot extremists who arose in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. Militant anti-Catholics who preached an imminence of the millenium, as a movement they were ultimately to foment out acts of violence and destruction against Catholic parishes in the region, including the murder of priests and the burning of Catholic churches. This in turn led to a violent repression against them by the kingdom of France, and many of their number were forced into English exile, where they were to become known as the "French Prophets", as is noted in the above extract from John Wesley’s journal.

It is not difficult to imagine the spiritual environment in which the French Prophets were to take root; the Saint Bartholomew’s massacre and the revocation of the Edict of Nantes were undoubtedly fresh on the minds of those marginalized pockets of Huguenot dissenters who populated the rural regions of the south of France. This region could safely be said to be a perpetual cradle of heresies for the western Church- as evinced by the medieval Albigensian (Cathar) kingdom.

A "siege mentality" and the fear of persecution were undoubtedly factors in whipping up both their expectations of an imminent millenium and their characteristic spirituality of direct inspiration and revelation, which characterized the manner and mode of their prophesying:

It is interesting to note the striking parallels between the influence on the nascent Pentecostal movement in the nineteenth century exercised by the millenarian speculations of individuals such as John Nelson Darby (whom we shall consider below), and that of similar ideas on the first Camisards:

 Early in the century, Pierre du Moulin … had examined St. John’s Revelation for clues to the divine chronology. ..it was clear to du Moulin that the Beast would endure for 1260 years…and from other passages it was equally clear to him that the Beast was the Pope…of more immediate interest, du Moulin ascertained that the persecution of the True Church by the Beast (the Pope) would end with the resurrection of the two witnesses of Revelation 11 in 1689. (Ibid, pge. 15)

It would not be long until such a tinderbox of spiritual expectation and religious tension would be set ablaze. Indeed, the accounts of the first French Prophets, (formerly known as Cevennes) are nothing if not truly remarkable for their similarity to thesubsequent descriptions of revivals, camp meetings, and, if I may say, the alleged "manifestations of the Spirit" in both the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements:

These manifestations, which were either the results of a somnambulistic trance, or of demonic possession, continued to draw the attention and veneration of the Huguenot communities all throughout the region:

Interestingly, this is the same prophecy that most Pentecostals and Charismatics quote regarding their movements appearance, "a new Pentecost." (The true and complete fulfillment of this prophecy, as acknowledged by St. Peter himself , occurred on the day of Pentecost.)

As is the case with nearly all such movements, transformation was inevitable. From being a phenomenon mainly associated with children, adults began to "catch the Spirit" as well. The "prophetic spirit" of the Camisards was translated from France to England, via the exiles, and many novelties were proposed in the alleged prophecies. One of these is eerily similar to the Pentecostal claims nearly two-centuries later. One of the emigres, Elie Marion, was the center of events eerily similar to those of the beginning of the Pentecostal-Charismatic movement nearly two centuries hence:

 He was granted a vision of a new Pentecost and promised signs and miracles in answer to those who demanded proofs of his divine commission…The new Pentecost began upon the publication of Marion’s Avertissements on April 8. In the subsequent week seven French men and women discovered their prophetic gifts. The presence of the new prophets called for constant attention on the part of all followers and for more time spent with the group. Both the millennial state, and the evidence of the Holy Spirit now had London referents….(ibid, pge 82 My italics)

Anyone familiar with the Charismatic renewal will recognize the phrase "new Pentecost", which has lately been appropriated by that movement. There is no question, therefore, that the idea of a " new Pentecost" is a totally unique concept that sprang out of the head of John XXIII in 1960, as did Athena from the head of Zeus!

The Prophets, with their paroxysms and fantastic speculations were bound to produce controversy among the English clergy; such is evinced by the circulation of this declaration by the Huguenot clergy in London:

…the agitations of these pretended Prophets are only the Effects of a voluntary Habit, of which they are entirely masters, though in their fits they seem to be agitated by a Superior Cause…But the way in which they make the Spirit speak is still more unworthy of him, which is by perpetual hesitations, childish repetitions, unintelligible stuff, gross contradictions, manifest lies, conjectures turned into predictions…or some moral precepts which may be heard every day much better expressed, and have nothing new but the grimaces with which they are expressed. (ibid, pge 80)

 It was inevitable that the appearance of this group in the Huguenot circles of England would arouse interest in a nation where similar sects, such as the Quakers and the Ranters proliferated.

As is documented by Hillel Schwartz in the work which I have so copiously cited, the French Prophets made many converts in England. One of these, John Lacy, apparently was able to speak in tongues; he spoke Latin on one occasion, Greek on another, and also, like Agnes Ozman, the first person to officially undergo the "Pentecostal experience" practised the occult form of mediumship known as automatic writing.

 The following quotation brings to mind the "dumbing down" of spirituality throughout much of the so-called Renewal. As we mentioned before, anti-intellectualism plays a large part in such movements, and the idea that "letting go" of oneself, and acting like a fool, cavorting, dancing, etc. somehow makes one a more decorous "temple of the Holy Spirit", as if the Holy Spirit were a divine puppet master pulling the strings of the human beings whom He loves and indwells in a capricious and violent, gratuitous manner. The French Prophets indulged in such mystical practices, and, interestingly enough, anticipated the so-called "holy laughter" lately popularized in such spurious manifestations of spirituality as the "Toronto blessing" and the "Pensacola revival" :

 The wild physical movements of the inspired recalled the countryside. ..City women who experienced agitations were able to escape social restraints on physical expression…Educated men equipped themselves with a new vocablulary in which they could be happily simple- minded and yet eloquent of body…the French prophets opened up a space in which believers were at liberty to play and to involve the body in play. So there could be a holy laughter, a joyful dialogue at which opponents might be shocked. (ibid. pge. 229)

 So much for the stern Sola Scriptura of Calvin! In much the same way as the Convulsionary Jansenists, (whom they probably influenced) the French Prophets were the "anointed" of their day. The movement was eventually to die out, giving way to the more discreet, yet unmistakable emotionalism of the Wesleyan revival, and the period of classic revivalism, which was to be the cradle of the Pentecostal movement.

The Philadelphians actually preceded the French Prophets in time, but they were by no means as influential on the course of future developments, nor as notorious as the latter group. The two groups undoubtedly influenced one another. There are unmistakable similarities between this group and the Pentecostals and charismatic movements. There is not likely to be a direct historical link between them, but their similarities outweigh the areas in which they diverge.

The names of those involved at the inception of the Philadelphians reek of occultism:

Although the name of Elias Ashmole probably does not ring a bell with most readers, he is renowned in occult circles as being the first officialy enrolled "speculative" Freemason, as well as a Rosicrucian and founding member of the British Royal Society. Anybody familiar with the issue knows that Freemasonry and Rosicrucianism are irreconcilable with orthodox Christianity. As such, the whole matter begins in an ambience of Hermetic anti-Christianity. Let the reader take note of the following:

So, as early as 1654, in a totally occult environment, we find an individual offering to bestow the "gifts of the Spirit" on whom he pleases! As indicated by Schwartz, Pordage then attempted to develop a system of thought based on the writings of Jacob Boehme, a heterodox German mystic whose theological tenets sound surprisingly similar to New Age ideas about an age of Aquarius, of millenial bliss-which he termed the Enochian age. Boehme also posited a theory about a "natural language" which supposedly pre-dated Adam’s fall, and which may have influenced the developing ideas with regards to speaking tongues. Boehme also had some very heterodox notions of the divine spirit, as a kind of pantheistic, female principle immanent in the entire universe.

Boehme explicitly taught that, as he was created in the Divine image, Adam was androgynous-both man and woman-as a reflection of the reality of the Divine Nature, wherein the alchemical conjunctio oppositorum (the uniting of the opposites) had its true fulfillment. It may have been at this juncture that the first stirrings of the feminine, Gnostic concepts of Sophia, or Divine Wisdom, as a supplanter of the Holy Spirit of the orthodox Trinity were to worm their way into the mainstream of Christianity. One is struck by the similarities of the speculative work of the occultist Pordage and many so-called Catholic thinkers today, who, in their rush to placate radical feminist notions, introduce a "femininity"to the Blessed Trinity; upon consulting the works of Boehme, Pordage went even further than the heterodox Lutheran:

Incredible as it may seem, such rhetoric is mirrored by a prominent theologians of the Charismatic Renewal, Heribert Muhlenn, who goes to great pains to excoriate the Angelic Doctor in order to justify his own immanentist and androgynous vision of the Holy Spirit:

 After Pordage’s death, the leadership of the organization begun by Pordage, devolved upon a certain mystic named Jane Lead:

In language that would reappear with the advent of the "ecumenical Charismatic movement nearly two hundred and fifty years later, and repeating the old heresy of the "spiritual super church", the Philadelphians announced themselves thus:

As noted above, the exact same sentiments were expressed at the inception of the "Charismatic Renewal proper. No longer were those "anointed" by the Spirit to let the walls of denominationalism divide them; they were to enjoy the free reign of the "Spirit" regardless of dogma, doctrine or discipline.

Another "mystic" who was prominent during the period of the Philadelphians, and undoubtedly influenced by both the French Prophets and Philadelphians was Hannah Wharton. Again, we observe the same so-called "outpouring of the Spirit", the same feverish millenarianism, the same prophetic utterances:

Wharton used language in her spiritual discourse that is virtually indistinguishable from that of many modern day "Pentecostal-Charismatic" revivalists:

"The Power" is something referred to by Pentecostals and Charismatics quite often. As a matter of fact, it was the desire to obtain this "power" that led the first group of Bible students in Topeka Kansas to seek the baptism in the Holy Spirit "with evidence" for the first time. One characteristic that the above groups share with the current "renewals and revivals" is that perennial desire to "walk by sight and touch, and not by faith," requiring the reassurance of outward manifestations of the so-called "Spirit", not being content with that faith which , as the Book of Hebrews points out, is the "substance of things hoped , the evidence of things not seen."

Such groups, deprived of the true faith in its fullest expression, require outward signs, and an emotionally charged fervor to dull the restlessness of which St. Augustine spoke. Such will characterize those who are sincerely seeking the truth, and not yet in its full possession.

For those not willing to go the full distance towards the acceptance of the Catholic faith, this restlessness pushes them on, and incites a feverish desire for "signs and wonders" and "blessed assurance." They are unwilling to face the intellectual Calvaries of an Augustine or a Newman-their distrust of Catholicism outweighs their desire for truth. So they fall into pseudo-mysticism, and into an emotionally charged euphoria which is evidence enough that what they adhere to is the truth. Their experience becomes the religion.

I have no right to pass judgment on the individual adherents of such movements; perhaps these phenomena and beliefs were the devil’s sparrows swooping down on the seed sown on the road. It could very well be that in doing so, he prevented these obviously fervent and well-meaning souls from arriving at the fullness of truth which is found only in the Catholic Church.

Revivalism was certainly not always considered as a mere vehicle for emotionalism or supernatural manifestations; it was at first undoubtedly a venue for eminent preachers (usually of the Calvinist variety) to travel about their respective countries issuing a stern message repentance and judgment. But hysterical manifestations, much like those witnessed at today’s so-called revivals, were invariably to accompany such ‘fire and brimstone’ preaching. The first preachers of revivalism (including John Wesley) were certainly no strangers to such things:

There was one important difference, though, between the incipient days of revivalism and our own-such manifestations were by no means unanimously considered to be evidence of the Holy Spirit’s presence; as a matter of fact, such men were often at a loss over how exactly to categorize these things. Some revivalists, like Jonathan Edwards, were suspicious and downright hostile to such demonstrations; others, like Wesley were more ambiguous towards the phenomena.

John Wesley and his principal collaborators, such as his brother Charles, and the evangelist Whitefield, (with whom he was to separate, due to their differences on the question of election and the distribution of grace) are certainly sympathetic and admirable figures. Certainly nobody with an open mind could read John Wesley’s journals and come away not liking the man-or fail to be in awe at his perseverance and his devotion to what he considered to be the true gospel of Christ.

At the same time, it was primarily Wesley’s interjection of the conversion experience characterized by emotional fervor and "blessed assurance of salvation" into mainline protestantism, that was to give the great era of the two revivals greatest impetus, and it was his popularisation of the "born-again experience" , and "second experience of sanctification" that was to exercise such an enormous influence on Protestant Christianity (and via the Charismatic Renewal, on millions of Catholics) in the succeeding centuries. Interestingly enough, it was a friend of Wesley’s who was the first to popularize the notion of the "Baptism in the Holy Spirit":

 In the matter of experiential salvation, Wesley was influenced considerably by the Moravians, a sect of German Pietists, who trace some of their origins to Jan Hus, and some to Luther; they professed the Lutheran idea of justification by the mere imputation of Christ’s righteousness to the believer. They also accepted the doctrine of the "eternal security of the believer" (the idea that "once you have been saved by being ‘born again’ you can never lose that salvation"). Although their "feeling of assurance of salvation" was by no means as violent or emotional as it was to be in its revivalist expression, it was on this point that they probably most influenced Wesley. The founder of Methodism, although he had been living the life of a devoted Christian, was, up to 1738, still experiencing pangs of doubt and fears of death. It was his in particular his correspondence with a Moravian preacher by the name of Peter Boehler, that led him to seek this "assurance of salvation". In his journal entry of May 24, 1738, Wesley, after providing a brief spiritual autobiography, describes his conversion experience:

In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate-Street, where one was reading Luther’s preface to the Epistle to the Romans. About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation: And an assurance was given me, that he had taken away my sins, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death. (John Wesley, Journals, May 24, 1738)

In a way it could be said that the greater part of the modern evangelical movement owes its existence to this moment in the life of Wesley; for this is the true origin of the modern day revival per se-the altar call, the testimonies, the "commitments to Christ", et al. Wesley’s experience was to lay the groundwork for the great period of classical revivalism which was to subsequently sweep the English speaking world. Emotion or feeling was now a virtually indispensable element in the born-again experience:

 So it was unlikely that Wesley would not askance at so called manifestations of the "Spirit", even if they involved rather violent or questionable concomitants:

 Such an attitude of acceptance on the part of Wesley led to an amiable disagreement with Whitefield, as the preacher who he refers to in the following passage of his Journal:

One particularly telling episode in Wesley’s long and productive life were the famous manifestations at Everton:

Although some present day defenders of Wesley insist that he was eventually enlightened to the point of deeming such incidents as spurious and counterfeit manifestations, the evidence is to the contrary, as is evinced by Wesley’s Journal entry for June 4, 1772, nearly twelve years after the foregoing passage:

…At our meeting on Tuesday, eleven more were filled with the peace of God. Yet one young man seemed quite unconcerned. But suddenly the power of God fell upon him; he cried for two hours with all his might. On Saturday evening God was present through the whole service, but especially towards the conclusion. Then one and another dropped down, till six lay on the ground together roaring…That evening, six were wounded…and indeed all of them were in such agonies, that many feared they were struck with death…Edward Farles…was struck to the ground, so distressed that he was convulsed all over. (ibid, June 4, 1739 quoted in Knox, op. Cit., pge 530)

Wesley seems to have accepted most of these manifestation as evidence of a kind of "wounding and healing" wrought by the Holy Spirit, leading to repentance, justification and salvation. However, there is no question in my mind that his (and other’s) acceptance of such paroxysms would undoubtedly lead, via the revivalism of the nineteenth century, to both the founding of Pentecostalism and the Charismatic movement, and the wild exaggerations of the revivals and "blessings" of the present day. The vast majority of such phenomena were undoubtedly attributable to hysteria, temporal epilepsy, suggestion and self-hypnosis, although in some cases there may have been a "preternatural" or demonic element. And it was Wesley’s teaching on a "second blessing of sanctification" which would, via the Holiness Churches, eventually metamorphose into the Pentecostal idea of a "baptism in the Spirit":

 One of the foremost scholars of Pentecostalism, Dr. Vincent Synan, certainly considers Wesley and Wesleyism as the direct lineal ancestor of Pentecostalism:

 Not all revival preachers accepted such behavior as befitting the presence of the Holy Spirit. Charles Finney, the renowned American revivalist of the nineteenth century, warned of the abuses and dangers which were often the direct consequence of the hysterical fervor which accompanied many revivals:

Finney goes on to describe how this atmosphere of feverish expectation goes on to distort, even totally obfuscate, the Gospel message of a true revival. These are words I believe that even the great St. John of the Cross would approve of:

The particular thing to which I would now call the attention of the brethren is this: There is a class of persons, in a season of deep excitement, and especially when there is a good deal of preaching on the necessity and reality of Divine influences, the spirit of prayer, being led by the Spirit, being filled with the Spirit, etc., who are extremely apt to give themselves up to be led by impulses. Mistaking the true manner in which the Spirit of God influences the mind, and not realizing that He enlightens the intelligence, and leads the Christian who is under His influence to be eminently reasonable and rational in all his views and movments, they are looking for the Spirit to make direct impressions on their feelings, and to lead them through the influence of their feelings, and not through their intelligence. Hence they are very full of impressions...-in short, there is no end to the forms in which these delusions appear. (ibid, pge. 43)

Finney was certainly no stranger to the disruptive, even chaotic nature that revivals could take on, when deprived of a solid and sound doctrinal and Biblical foundation. (What it is important for the Catholic to remember here is that the Bible is a "proper gift " of the Church, and insofar as Protestants rightly interpret it and preach it, they are preaching truth. When a Protestant minister, for example, exhorts his flock to repent of their sins and ask forgiveness of God through His Son Jesus Christ, he is preaching truth, even if such is only a partial truth. Therefore, it could certainly be said that there is a positive side to sound Protestant revivals, insofar as they cause Protestants to repent of their sins, and trust the mercy of God and (perhaps) preparing them for the fullness of truth which is to be found only in the Catholic Church. On the other hand, any so-called revival which would exhort Catholics to in essence abandon their membership in the one true Church, and embrace the Protestant notion of salvation could not be good at all.)

No doubt Finney’s words were a response to the excesses of the "second great awakening", a wave of religious fervor which had swept over the United States in the early decades of the twentieth century. Revivalism, especially in America, was to be characterized by manifestations which became wilder and wilder as the years progressed. There would be talk of people, who, "falling under the power" would "bark up the devil"; people would howl, roar, break out in spontaneous prophecy, etc. The era of revivalism would produce two great revivals in the United States: the first great awakening, which was generally a traditional Calvinistic revival to repentance and "Godliness", and the "second great awakening", less characterized by the Calvinism of its forerunner, more sensitive to the promptings of the "Spirit":

As Knox goes on to relate, one of the illegitimate offspring of this second great "revival" was to be the heterodox movement of the Shakers. This was also the religious milieu which young Joseph Smith was so immersed in. It is a well known fact that Palmyra, New York,where Smith was raised, had been a hot bed of revivalism during the "second great awakening". Smith drank deeply of the enthusiastic atmosphere promoted and encouraged by the revival, and it was his search for the "true denomination" that ultimately led him into his conferences with the demon who called himself "Moroni." It is also interesting to note that both movements, Shakerism and Mormonism, practiced glossolalia, or speaking in tongues, long before the advent of modern or classical Pentecostalism, which certainly does not speak well for the Pentecostal (or Charismatic) claims that the movement represents a unique latter-day outpouring of the Holy Spirit.

 
THE IRVINGITES

The Irvingites were an early and mid nineteenth century sect gathered around the preaching and teaching of Edward Irving, a Scottish Presbyterian minister. Irving would eventually break away and form his own congregation, the Catholic Apostolic Church, and teach the heretical doctrine that human nature was totally evil. But in the meantime, through means of his preaching and prophesying, he was to exercise quite an influence over the religious climate of nineteenth century Britain:

 What was the nature of Irvingite glossolalia? From most of the contemporaneous accounts, it would appear that it was virtually identical to what passes for "the gift of tongues" in the Pentecostal and Charismatic movements, along with the so-called gift of interpretation:

 Knox is quoting Dr. Drummond, the prominent banker and member of the sect, who claimed that the glossolalia which was being practised among Irving’s congregation had all the characteristics of a true language. This is the perennial argument of modern day tongues speakers-at first they maintain that the gift of tongues which they possess is a true foreign language. When proof of this is not forthcoming, they almost invariably fall back on a second argument-that the tongues are ‘unknown languages, or languages of angels’. And when it is demonstrated that the tongues in question obey no linguistic rules at all, but are merely a meaningless bunch of random syllables, they fall back on their extreme subjectivist argument: the tongues are a private, therapeutic prayer language, and not miraculous at all. When faced with these facts, Pentecostal and Charismatic apologists for the "end times restoration of tongues" will engage in a verbal "dog and pony show" in order to defend the movement:

Laurentin pulls out all the stops and employs all the high sounding excuses he can to justify the fact that modern glossolalia is not xenoglossia, or true foreign language. It was the same with Irvingite glossolalia, which also went through a similar phase. When it was adequately proven that none of the "tongues" spoken in Irving’s congregation were in fact human languages, a new raison d’ etre had to be found for their existence:

Knox does not, however, agree with the conclusions expressed by the Cyclopaedia with regards to the tongues being a totally unknown language-as is evident, the prominent glossalalists, the Macdonald brothers, expected their tongues to be understood only under the inspiration of the Spirit; thus, they introduced into the the notion of tongue speaking the "mediumistic or telepathic type of interpretation" totally at variance with the Pauline concepts of eJrmhneu>w, or the idea of rational interpretation or translation of languages, which is undoubtedly what is referred to in 1 Corinthians.

Such a mediumistic role for the "interpreter" is now the rule in Charismatic prayer assemblies-but nowhere in Christian tradition does one find such a manner of interpreting tongues. Whenever anyone begins speaking in an unknown tongue, another "inspired" member of the assembly will claim that the person is saying such and such-but such interpretations never amount to anything more than platitudes or truisms; except in certain exceptional cases where there may be a preternatural agency involved. This may be the manner in which the Pythoness at Delphi was interpreted by the priests of Apollo, or the way in which Shamans operate, but it is emphatically not a Christian mode of prayer or prophecy. St. Paul exhorts the Corinthians to pray for the gift of interpretation, or translation; and it was not until the Irvingites came on the scene that the gift of tongues was considered anything but an articulate, understandable and existing human language-Laurentin himself admits as much (ibid. pge 67). The gift of tongues itself will be dealt with further on.

It would appear that little has changed with respect to this controversy in the nearly two centuries which separates our generation from that of the Irvingites. Interestingly enough, some of the tongue speaking practiced by the sect sounds almost identical to the glossolalia I heard while in a Charismatic prayer group in Mexico:

The person who speaks in tongues in a prayer group almost always begins in this fashion-emitting repetitive acclamations of praise, or supplication, or hymns, or something similar. Then, in the middle of the repetitive phrases or chants, the glossolalia will begin with syllables like those above, or ha na na, shama na, shama na, or any number of vowel combinations-often influenced by a few words in Hebrew, or Greek the person picks up in Bible study classes. In my experience, there was very seldom any interpretation done of the tongues.

Although the vast majority of the Irvingite tongues and prophesying must have been due to euphoria or hysteria, there may have been cases of diabolical influence:

As is the case with most of the groups we have seen so far, both Protestant and "Catholic", the Irvingites preached, and more importantly, prophesied, the imminence of the Second Coming of Christ. In Irving’s case, such ideas probably began with the following prophetic utterances of his acquaintances, the aforementioned Macdonald brothers:

 "On April 20, 1830, in the first recorded instance in modern times, James
MacDonald spoke in tongues, and his twin, George, interpreted: "Behold, he
cometh-Jesus cometh-a weeping Jesus." In fact, almost all the subsequent
interpretations in England centered on the theme "the Lord is coming soon,
get ready to meet him." (Vinson Synan, Proto-Pentecostal Time Line, )

The consequences of Irving’s interest in eschatological prophecies, and his own speculations on the matter would have staggering consequences on the future of evangelical Protestantism. It is known that, apart from the prophecies of his own sect, Irving was influenced by the writings of a Chilean Jesuit by the name of Manuel De Lacunza y Diaz, a converted Jew, who wrote a book entitled The Coming of the Messiah in Glory and Majesty under the pseudonym of Juan Josafat Ben Ezra, and the work itself became known as Ben-Ezra. The book was eventually condemned by the Holy Office because of its hyper-semitism and its millenarianism.:

The Ben-Ezra document laid the foundation for Edward Irving's millenarianism …Though historic "Chiliasm" has always been around, that faith had fallen into the background. It was revived by Lacunza, Irving and Darby, each adding his unique ideas, and, with those added ideas, re-energized "Chiliasm" had been circulating for over a hundred years before Scofield published his book. That faith had been gaining gradual acceptance, but it was Scofield's notes that injected it into Christian society as the major Christian "doctrine." (www.preteristarchive.com )

Irving, aside from having Ben-Ezra translated into English, also wrote a 200 page introduction to the work, in which he put forth his speculations on the end-times, and in which he posits the perennial "end times restoration of the Spirit’s gifts":

This is critically important, since it establishes that the concept of a "latter rain" outpouring of the gifts of the Spirit near the time of the Lord’s return can be traced directly to the Irvingite cult. "Latter-rain" is well known in Pentecostal and Charismatic circles as the a virtually interchangable phrase for "New Pentecost". Not only the phrase, but the concepts are virtually identical:

John Nelson Darby, the founder of the Plymouth Brethren, knew Irving personally, and was undoubtedly influenced by the prophecies of the Irvingites; it was Darby who was the first to popularize the idea of a "pre-tribulation" rapture (as prophesied by the female trance medium, Margaret Macdonald), and was essentially the first to proffer the idea of a separate covenant with the Jews whereby the nation of Israel would be totally restored during the last times, in order that the Old Testament prophecies regarding "national Israel" could be fulfilled before the end-times. The Church has always taught, following St. Paul, that the Jews will be converted to the Church at the end of the world, and once again return to Palestine. However, this clearly has nothing to do with the present secular State of Israel. It is precisely this teaching of dispensationalism which, by means of the Schofield Reference Bible, has so influenced the thinking of Evangelicals (and Pentecostals) world-wide. Such books of eschatology fiction as the Late Great Planet Earth, exercise an undue influence, via the Charismatic movement, on Catholics as well, who ignore the true, Catholic teaching on the end-times:

 Some of these "Catholic" Pentecostals even go so far as to defend un-Catholic concepts such as the rapture-in deference to their no doubt wiser Protestant brethren. The tragedy in all this is that, due to the enormous infusion of such spurious and false eschatology into the body of the Catholic faithful, via the influence of the Charismatic movements’ more extreme members, that the true Catholic teaching on this matter has all but been relegated to oblivion, lost amid an avalanche of endless speculations spurred on by visions, "prophecies", alleged apparitions of the Blessed Mother, of the saints, and the infusion of Protestantized teachings on the end times.