Marriage, Celibacy, and Heresy in Ancient Christianity: The Jovinianist Controversy (Oxford Early Christian Studies)

366 Pages·2007·1.73 MB·English

by  David G. Hunter

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© Copyright Oxford University Press, 2007. All Rights Reserved
Hunter, David G. , Professor of Religious Studies and Monsignor James A. Supple Chair of
Catholic Studies, Iowa State University
Marriage, Celibacy, and Heresy in Ancient Christianity
The Jovinianist Controversy
Publication date 2007 (print edition)
Print ISBN: 978-0-19-927978-4
doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199279784.001.0001

Abstract: In the later years of the fourth century the monk Jovinian was
condemned at Rome and Milan for teaching that all baptized Christians were equal
in God's sight and that all would receive an equal reward in heaven regardless of ascetic
merit. This book is the first study in English devoted to Jovinian and the controversy sparked
by his teaching. In chapter 1 I offer a reconstruction of Jovinian's teaching, uncovering its
strong anti-heretical emphases, exposing its biblical foundations, and relating it to
fourth-century baptismal practice. Subsequent chapters place Jovinian in a variety of
contexts: the rise of a Christian aristocracy in the fourth century (chapter 2); the
development of an anti-heretical tradition in the first three centuries (chapter 3); the
proliferation of this heresiological discourse in the fourth century (chapter 4); and the history
of Marian theology, especially on the matter of Mary's perpetual virginity (chapter 5). In the
final two chapters I distinguish the different approaches to marriage, celibacy, and clerical life
evinced by Jovinian's opponents (chapter 6), and highlight the ways in which one of these
opponents, Jerome, became the object of criticism and accusations of heresy. If there is a
single conclusion to be drawn from this study, it is that Jovinian stood much closer to the
mainstream of the Christian tradition than previous critics (including his ancient opponents)
allowed.
Keywords: Jovinian, marriage, celibacy, orthodoxy, heresy, virginity, Augustine,
Ambrose, Jerome, Siricius
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
Part I. Jovinian and his World
1. Reconstructing Jovinian
The main outlines of the teaching of Jovinian can be reconstructed from the reports of Siricius,
Ambrose, and Jerome. Condemned at Rome and Milan in spring of 393, Jovinian acquired a
considerable following by denying that celibate Christians were, ipso facto, superior to married
Christians. He also appears to have accused his opponents of heresy, especially ‘Manichaeism’. For
example, he charged that Ambrose was guilty of heresy for teaching that Mary the mother of
Jesus remained physically intact in the process of giving birth (virginitas in partu). Jovinian
stressed the power of baptism to overcome evil and to guarantee salvation for all Christians.

2. Jovinian and Christian Rome
In the background of the Jovinianist controversy there is plentiful evidence of Christian opposition
to asceticism, especially at Rome. One reason for this is that by the mid-fourth century a Christian
aristocratic culture had begun to develop, in which ‘assimilation and accommodation’ (Salzman) to
traditional aristocratic values was the norm. Even when late Roman aristocrats adopted
asceticism, they often did so in line with traditional aristocratic expectations of their class and
without significant disruption of lifestyle. The adoption of asceticism by female members of the
gens Anicii is a notable example.

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Part II. Jovinian, Heresy, and Asceticism
3. Asceticism, Heresy, and Early Christian Tradition
Jovinian's accusations against ascetic extremists had a precedent in earlier Christian tradition.
Ascetic elitism was opposed by a number of early Christian writers, including 1 Clement, Ignatius,
and the author of the Pastoral Epistles. By the early third century, this opposition had hardened
into the polarities of ‘orthodoxy’ and ‘heresy’. This anti-heretical effort culminated in the writings
of Irenaeus and Clement of Alexandria against the ‘encratite’ heresy, which anticipated the
polemics of Jovinian. In the third century we also see the development of a ‘moderate encratism’
in the writings of Tertullian, Cyprian, and Origen, which later inspired the opponents of Jovinian,
e.g. Ambrose and Jerome.

4. Jovinian, Heresy, and Fourth-Century Asceticism
Both radical and moderate forms of encratism proliferated in the fourth century, encouraged by
the spread of monasticism and Manichaeism. Anti-heretical responses followed, both in literary
works and in imperial legislation: the labels ‘Manichaean’ and ‘Encratite’ were applied to all types
of ascetics, thereby blurring the boundaries between ‘orthodoxy’ and ‘heresy’. Heresiologists, such
as Epiphanius and Filastrius of Brescia, also indiscriminately mixed Manichees, Encratites,
Montanists, and even the followers of Origen. Thus they prepared the way for the kind of polemics
articulated by Jovinian.

5. Mary Ever-Virgin? Jovinian and Marian Heresy
A survey of the history of the idea of Mary's virginitas in partu shows that the notion had only
marginal support in the tradition of the first three centuries. Associated with both docetism and
encratism, the doctrine was opposed even by ascetically minded teachers, such as Tertullian and
Origen. In the late fourth century, however, the notion of Mary's virginitas in partu reappeared in
the sermons of Zeno of Verona and the ascetical treatises of Ambrose; Jerome, by contrast, was
more reticent about embracing the idea. Jovinian's opposition to the virginitas in partu, therefore,
stood squarely in the mainstream of Christian opinion, as it had developed by the late fourth
century.

Part III. Jovinian and his Opponents
6. Against Jovinian: From Siricius to Jerome
Although they all concurred in condemning Jovinian, Pope Siricius, Ambrose, and Jerome had
different views of asceticism and clerical office. Siricius had long been lukewarm towards ascetic
piety; he insisted that monks had to work their way through the ranks of the clergy before
becoming presbyters or bishops, at the same time as he insisted on sexual continence for the
higher clergy. Ambrose, by contrast, saw monks as the ideal candidates for the episcopacy, and
he encouraged the ascetical life, especially in the form of consecrated female virginity. Jerome
favoured the ascetic life and looked down on most of the clergy. He also was overtly hostile
towards both Siricius and Ambrose. All of these different dynamics came into play in the course of
the Jovinianist Controversy

7. After Jovinian: Marriage and Celibacy in Western Theology
The extreme positions taken by Jerome in his Adversus Jovinianum provoked numerous responses
in the decades after Jovinian's condemnation. Friends, such as Pammachius and Domnio,
demanded that Jerome explain himself or retract his words. Enemies, such as Rufinus of Aquileia,
suggested that Jerome was guilty of the ‘Manichaean’ heresy. Others, such as Pelagius, Augustine,
and the anonymous author of the Consultationes Zacchaei et Apollonii, quietly offered alternative
views, without condemning Jerome directly. These efforts to find a via media between Jerome and
Jovinian show the ongoing impact of Jovinian's arguments and the need for a more moderate
approach to marriage and celibacy than Jerome had provided.

Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
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Hunter, David G. , Professor of Religious Studies and Monsignor James A. Supple Chair of
Catholic Studies, Iowa State University
Marriage, Celibacy, and Heresy in Ancient Christianity
Print ISBN 9780199279784, 2007
pp. [vii]
Preface
In the later years of the fourth century an intense theological controversy
occurred in Western Christianity over the issue of celibacy and marriage. At
the centre of this debate stood a monk named Jovinian, who earned
ecclesiastical condemnation for asserting that celibate and married Christians
were equal in God's sight. Jovinian was opposed by some of the foremost
churchmen of his day, among them Ambrose, Jerome, and Augustine (all
later named ‘doctors’ of the Latin Church). This book tells the story of
Jovinian and the conflicts generated by his teaching.
A word about the scope of my discussion is in order, for much of this book
deals with figures and ideas that appeared prior to the time of Jovinian.
Chapter 3, for example, begins with Jesus and Paul and concludes with
Origen of Alexandria, and Chapter 4 ranges widely across the East and West
in the fourth century. I deemed this approach necessary because I wished to
place Jovinian within the context of the broader history of early Christian
teaching on marriage and celibacy. One of the central arguments I develop is
that although Jovinian was condemned as a ‘heretic’, he actually had much
in common with previous Christian writers of impeccably ‘orthodox’ stripe.
Conversely, I considered it necessary at times to trace the prehistory of
ideas opposed by Jovinian (e.g. my discussion of Mary's virginitas in partu in
Chapter 5), if only to demonstrate the marginal status of such ideas within
the earlier tradition.
Scholars of Christianity in late antiquity have produced an abundance of
studies of ascetic behaviour, and especially sexual renunciation, in recent
decades. But no one has yet directed comparable attention to the reverse
phenomenon, that is, to the ways in which Christians questioned and
challenged aspects of the ascetic ideal. My aim has been to retrieve some of
these anti-ascetic tendencies in early Christianity and to demonstrate their
place within the broader Christian tradition. The result, I believe, is a revised
and more nuanced account of the development of Christian thought on
asceticism in late antiquity.
As my friends know, I have been at work on this project for much too long
and have accumulated more than the usual share of debts. Over the years
many scholars have heard, read, or responded to pieces of the present work,
especially at meetings of the North American Patristics Society, the Oxford
International Conference on Patristic Studies, the American Academy of
Religion and Society of Biblical Literature, and the American Society of
Church History. I apologize to those I have unwittingly omitted from the
following acknowledgements.
end p.vii
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© Copyright Oxford University Press, 2007. All Rights Reserved
Hunter, David G. , Professor of Religious Studies and Monsignor James A. Supple Chair of
Catholic Studies, Iowa State University
Marriage, Celibacy, and Heresy in Ancient Christianity
Print ISBN 9780199279784, 2007
pp. [viii]
Several dear friends have graciously read the entire manuscript and offered
their expert criticism: Elizabeth A. Clark, J. Patout Burns, Peter Iver
Kaufman, Robert A. Markus, and Robert Louis Wilken. One could not ask for
more learned or more generous readers. Special thanks are owed to my
colleague at Iowa State University, Eric Northway, who unselfishly (perhaps
imprudently) took time from his own dissertation to read the entire text and
to encourage me along the way.
Conversations with colleagues in the United States and abroad have often
enlightened me and always delighted me, among them: Gillian Clark, Kate
Cooper, Jack Davidson, Thomas Fisch, Carol Harrison, Susan Ashbrook
Harvey, Madeleine Henry, Mathijs Lamberigts, Conrad Leyser, Bill Klingshirn,
Neil McLynn, Susan Marks, Thomas Martin, Kim Power, Richard Price, Michael
Rackett, Michele Salzman, Dennis Trout, and Mark Vessey. In the spring of
2001 a lecture for the Early Christian Studies programme at The Catholic
University of America and for the Group for the Study of Late Antiquity at
Princeton University gave me the opportunity to present material later
incorporated into Chapter 6. I wish to thank Philip Rousseau of Catholic
University and Peter Brown of Princeton for their kind invitations and
gracious hospitality. In attendance at Princeton were Virginia Burrus,
Susanna Elm, and Brent Shaw. Their encouragement contributed more than
they know to the completion of this book.
Grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities supported my
research at several points, and the Leverhulme Trust of Great Britain enabled
me to spend a year as a Visiting Fellow at the University of Nottingham,
where I pursued some of the initial work on this project. Colleagues at
Nottingham were always warmly receptive to the foreigner in their midst. I
thank Ed Ball, Richard Bell, Maurice Casey, Douglas Davies, John Heywood
Thomas, Hugh Goddard, Wolf Liebeschuetz, Sr. Mary Charles Murray, and
Gerard O'Daly. Sabbatical grants from the University of St. Thomas in
Minnesota and Iowa State University provided the freedom from teaching
needed to complete this work.
At Oxford University Press Lucy Qureshi has been a model editor and
graciously tolerant of my delays. I am grateful to Dorothy McCarthy, Jenny
Wagstaffe, and Rachel Woodforde for guiding the typescript through
production, and to Jack Sinden for his careful copy-editing. I must
acknowledge, as well, the editors of the Oxford Early Christian Studies
series, Gillian Clark and Andrew Louth, for accepting the book into their
series. I owe a special debt to Professor Robin Margaret Jensen of Vanderbilt
University Divinity School for providing the photograph on the jacket.
Finally, I am grateful that my sons, Gregory and Robert, who having grown
up in the shadow of Jovinian, have emerged no worse for it. And to my wife,
Lynn, who has provided her skill as an editor and her support as a spouse,
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the dedication says it all.
D. G. H.
end p.viii
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© Copyright Oxford University Press, 2007. All Rights Reserved
Hunter, David G. , Professor of Religious Studies and Monsignor James A. Supple Chair of
Catholic Studies, Iowa State University
Marriage, Celibacy, and Heresy in Ancient Christianity
Print ISBN 9780199279784, 2007
pp. [ix]
Contents
List of Abbreviations x
Introduction 1
Part I. Jovinian and his World
1. Reconstructing Jovinian 15
2. Jovinian and Christian Rome 51
Part II. Jovinian, Heresy, and Asceticism
3. Asceticism, Heresy, and Early Christian Tradition 87
4. Jovinian, Heresy, and Fourth-Century Asceticism 130
5. Mary Ever-Virgin? Jovinian and Marian Heresy 171
Part III. Jovinian and his Opponents
6. Against Jovinian: From Siricius to Jerome 207
7. After Jovinian: Marriage and Celibacy in Western Theology 243
Conclusion 285
References 288
Index 308
end p.ix
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Hunter, David G. , Professor of Religious Studies and Monsignor James A. Supple Chair of
Catholic Studies, Iowa State University
Marriage, Celibacy, and Heresy in Ancient Christianity
Print ISBN 9780199279784, 2007
pp. [x]
Abbreviations
1. Periodicals and series
Abbreviations of the names of periodicals and series have been adapted from
Patrick H. Alexander, John F. Kutsko, James D. Ernest, Shirley A.
Decker-Lucke, and David L. Petersen (eds.), The SBL Handbook of Style for
Ancient Near Eastern, Biblical, and Early Christian Studies (Peabody, Mass.:
Hendrickson, 1999); supplemented by Siegfried Schwertner (ed.),
Internationales Abkürzungsverzeichnis für Theologie und Grenzgebiete
(Berlin and New York: Walter de Gruyter, 1974).
AB Anchor Bible
ACW Ancient Christian Writers
AJA American Journal of Archaeology
ANRW Aufstieg und Niedergang der römischen Welt
ATR Anglican Theological Review
Aug Augustinianum
AugStud Augustinian Studies
BA Bibliothèque Augustinienne
BJRL Bulletin of the John Rylands Library
BLE Bulletin de littérature ecclésiastique
CAH Cambridge Ancient History
CBQ Catholic Biblical Quarterly
CH Church History
CIL Corpus Inscriptionum Latinarum
CCSA Corpus Christianorum, Series Apocryphorum
CCSL Corpus Christianorum, Series Latina
CSEL Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum
CQ Classical Quarterly
CSCO Corpus Scriptorum Christianorum Orientalium
C.Th. Codex Theodosianus, in T. Mommsen and P. M. Meyer (eds.), Theodosiani libri
XVI cum constitutionibus Sirmondianis (Berlin, 1905)
end p.x
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Hunter, David G. , Professor of Religious Studies and Monsignor James A. Supple Chair of
Catholic Studies, Iowa State University
Marriage, Celibacy, and Heresy in Ancient Christianity
Print ISBN 9780199279784, 2007
pp. [xi]
CWE Collected Works of Erasmus
CWS Classics of Western Spirituality
DOP Dumbarton Oaks Papers
DSp Dictionnaire de spiritualité, ascétique et mystique
EphMar Ephemerides Mariologicae
ETL Ephemerides theologicae lovanienses
FC Fathers of the Church
FZPhTh Freiburger Zeitschrift für Philosophie und Theologie
GCS Die griechischen christlichen Schriftsteller der ersten drei Jahrhunderte
Greg Gregorianum
HTR Harvard Theological Review
ILCV E. Diehl (ed.), Inscriptiones latinae christianae veteres, 3 vols. (Berlin, 1925–31)
JAC Jahrbuch für Antike und Christentum
JECS Journal of Early Christian Studies
JEH Journal of Ecclesiastical History
JBL Journal of Biblical Literature
JMEMS Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies
JRS Journal of Roman Studies
JSPSup Journal for the Study of the Pseudepigrapha: Supplement Series
JTS Journal of Theological Studies
LCC Library of Christian Classics
LCL Loeb Classical Library
MFC Message of the Fathers of the Church
Mus Muséon: Revue d'études orientales
NHMS Nag Hammadi and Manichaean Studies
NPNF1 Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 1
NPNF2 Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2
NTS New Testament Studies
OECS Oxford Early Christian Studies
OECT Oxford Early Christian Texts
PG Patrologia Graeca
PL Patrologia Latina
PLS A. Hamman (ed.), Patrologiae Latinae Supplementum, 5 vols. (Paris, 1958–74)
end p.xi
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Hunter, David G. , Professor of Religious Studies and Monsignor James A. Supple Chair of
Catholic Studies, Iowa State University
Marriage, Celibacy, and Heresy in Ancient Christianity
Print ISBN 9780199279784, 2007
pp. [xii]
PLRE A. H. M. Jones, J. R. Martindale, and J. Morris (eds.), The Prosopography of the
Later Roman Empire, 4 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1980–92)
PMS Patristic Monograph Series
PTS Patristische Texte und Studien
RAC Reallexikon für Antike und Christentum
RBen Revue Bénédictine
REAug Revue des études augustiniennes
RechAug Recherches augustiniennes
REL Revue des études latines
RHE Revue d'histoire ecclésiastique
RHR Revue de l'histoire des religions
RQ Römische Quartalschrift für christliche Altertumskunde und für Kirchengeschichte
RTAM Recherches de théologie ancienne et médiévale
RTL Revue théologique de Louvain
RTP Revue de théologie et de philosophie
SacEr Sacris erudiri: Jaarboek voor Godsdienstwetenschappen
SAEMO Sancti Ambrosii Episcopi Mediolanensis Opera
SC Sources chrétiennes
StPatr Studia Patristica
TAPA Transactions of the American Philological Association
TaS Texts and Studies
TS Theological Studies
TU Texte und Untersuchungen zur Geschichte der altchristliche Literatur
VetChr Vetera Christianorum
VC Vigiliae Christianae
VL Vetus Latina: Die Reste der altlateinischen Bibel
WGRW Writings from the Greco-Roman World
WSA The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century
ZKG Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte
ZNW Zeitschrift für die neutestamentliche Wissenschaft
ZTK Zeitschrift für Theologie und Kirche
end p.xii
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Hunter, David G. , Professor of Religious Studies and Monsignor James A. Supple Chair of
Catholic Studies, Iowa State University
Marriage, Celibacy, and Heresy in Ancient Christianity
Print ISBN 9780199279784, 2007
pp. [xiii]
2. Ancient sources
Abbreviations of the titles of Latin sources have been adapted from Albert
Blaise and Henri Chirat (eds.), Dictionnaire Latin–Français des auteurs
chrétiens (Turnout: Brepols, 1954); titles of Greek patristic texts from G. W.
H. Lampe (ed.) A Patristic Greek Lexicon (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1961).
Full publication information is not given for editions that have appeared in
the most common series: CSEL, CCSL, CSCO, GCS, PL, PLS, PG, and SC.
Ambrose of Milan
Cain De Cain et Abel (CSEL 32.1)
Ep. Epistulae (CSEL 82.1-3)
Exh. virg. Exhortatio virginitatis, in F. Gori (ed.), Verginità e vedovanza ii (SAEMO 14.2;
Milan and Rome, 1989)
Fid. De fide (CSEL 78)
Inst. De institutione virginis, in F. Gori (ed.), Verginità e vedovanza ii (SAEMO 14.2;
Milan and Rome, 1989)
Luc. Expositio evangelii secundum Lucam (CCSL 14)
Myst. De mysteriis (SC 25bis)
Off. De officiis, in Ivor Davidson (ed.), Ambrose: De officiis i (OECS; Oxford, 2001)
Paen. De paenitentia (SC 179)
Sacr. De sacramentis (SC 25bis)
Vid. De viduis, in F. Gori (ed.), Verginità e vedovanza i (SAEMO 14.1; Milan and
Rome, 1989)
Virg. De virginibus, in F. Gori (ed.), Verginità e vedovanza i (SAEMO 14.1; Milan and
Rome, 1989)
Virgin. De virginitate, in F. Gori (ed.), Verginità e vedovanza ii (SAEMO 14.2; Milan
and Rome, 1989)
Ps-Ambrose
Laps. virg. De lapsu virginis (PL 16)
Ambrosiaster
Comm. in Rom. (etc.) Commentarius in xiii epistulas Paulinas: ad Romanos (etc.) (CSEL
81.1–3)
Quaest. Quaestiones veteris et novi testamenti (CSEL 50)
end p.xiii
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