Jovinian

d. c.405. Writer and monk. His treatise entitled Commentarioli has not survived, and its thought can at most be minimally reconstructed from Jerome's refutation, Adversus Jovinianum, in two books written in 392 at the request of Pammachius.* By that date Jovinian, presbyter and formerly strict monk, and his followers had already been synodically condemned twice: in Rome under Siricius (390) and in Milan under Ambrose (391). Jerome's first book deals entirely with Jovinian's notion that, provided persons did not differ in other respects, marriage is of equal esteem to virginity-which struck at the heart of monasticism. In the second book three further notions are covered: those receiving baptism in full faith cannot again be led into sin; fasting has no greater merit than eating with thankfulness; and there is no inequality based on status in life in heavenly reward. It appears also that Jovinian was associated with Helvidius as one rejecting the perpetual virginity of Mary and affirming that Jesus had full brothers by Joseph.