JOVINIANUS  , or JovIANus, a

Roman monk of heterodox views, who flourished during the latter half of the 4th century . All our knowledge of him is derived from a passionately hostile polemic of Jerome (Adv . Jovinianum, Libri II.), written at Bethlehem in 393, and without any personal acquaintance with the man assailed . According to this authority Jovinian in 388 was living at Rome the celibate life of an. ascetic monk, possessed a good acquaintance with the Bible, and was the author of several minor works, but, undergoing an heretical change of view, after-wards became a self-indulgent Epicurean and unrefined sensualist . The views which excited this denunciation were mainly these: (I) Jovinian held that in point of merit; so far as their domestic state was concerned, virgins, widows and married persons who had been baptized into Christ were on a precisely equal footing; (2) those who with full faith have been regenerated in baptism cannot be overthrown (or, according to another reading) tempted) of the devil; (3) to abstain from meats is not more praiseworthy than thankfully to enjoy them; (4) all who have preserved their baptismal grace shall receive the same reward in the kingdom of heaven.' Jovinian thus indicates a natural and vigorous reaction against the exaggerated'asceticism of the 4th century, a protest shared by Helvidius and Vigilantius . He was condemned by a Roman synod under Bishop Siricius in 390, and afterwards excommunicated by another at Milan under the presidency of Ambrose . The year ofhis death is unknown, but he is referred to as no longer alive in Jerome's Contra Vigilantium (406) .