18 Facts About Jovinian

Jovinian was an opponent of Christian asceticism in the 4th century and was condemned as a heretic at synods convened in Rome under Pope Siricius and in Milan by Ambrose in 393 because of his views.

Jovinian was a native of Corduene, in present day Turkey.

Jovinian's teachings received much popular support in Rome and Milan and his followers Sarmatio and Barbatianus kept preaching his ideas after Jovinian was expelled.

Jovinian was apparently broadly read and adduced examples from secular literature, which did not sit well at the synods.

Jovinian became the leader of a group of disciples: Auxentius, Genialis, Germinator, Felix, Prontinus, Martianus, Januarius and Ingeniosus are identified in the act of 390 condemning him.

Jovinian's writings praising the excellence of marriage, which he published from Rome, were condemned at a synod held in Rome under Pope Siricius and subsequently at the Milan synod.

The writings of Jovinian were sent to Jerome by his friend Pammachius.

Jovinian felt that virgins, widows and married women, even remarried widows, are of equal merit in the Christian community.

Jovinian maintained that abstinence is no better than the partaking of food in the right disposition.

Jovinian wrote that if they do sin, they must repent.

Rather, Jovinian seems to have been arguing that something significant occurs in the life of the believer when he or she is baptized, something that goes beyond peccability.

In other words, Jovinian argued for what historian David Hunter called the final indefectibility of believers rather than their personal impeccability.

However Jovinian did not derive his view of eternal security from a doctrine of predestination, but instead from his denial of works having merit.

Jovinian rejected the idea that believers should be divided into classes, some more spiritual than others, because the New Testament repeatedly emphasizes that all believers partake of the body and blood of Christ, that the Holy Spirit indwells all believers, and that the Church itself is one.

Many scholars have argued that for Jovinian, works did not justify a man, thus holding to a Protestant view of justification, which is by faith alone.

Jovinian distinguished physical baptism and baptism of the Holy Spirit, which confers grace to the believer.

Jovinian was condemned by Ambrose, in the same fashion as Siricius, because of his high views on marriage.

Later in the Protestant reformation, Jovinian has been seen as a "witness of truth", while he is most often seen as a heretic by Catholics.