synod at Milan to Pope Siricius (Ambrose, Epistle xlii) and from Augustine's book Contra Julian. ii, it is clear that Jovinian also denied the perpetual virginity of Mary. The counter of Jerome to this "Epicurus of Christianity" took a whole book to praise virginity and disparage the state of marriage, based upon Paul's remarks in 1 Corinthians 7. The work was couched in abusive and intemperate language that appalled Pammachius, who found it excessive in its praise of virginity and in depreciation of marriage. Jerome did not approve of democratic distribution of bliss in the life to come: Perhaps those who have been married twice or thrice ought not to complain, for the same whoremonger if penitent is made equal in the kingdom of heaven even to virgins. Efforts to suppress it failed, however, and Jerome's work obtained a wide circulation. Chaucer mentions Jovinian with scorn in the "Summoner's Tale" of his Canterbury Tales, lines 221-3: ...lyke Iouinian Fat as a whale and walkynge as a swan As vinolent as botel in the spence Reaction After Jovinian attacked monasticism, Jerome attacked him harshly. Jerome gives a very bad picture of the character of Jovinian, clearly colored by bitterness. Jerome called Jovinian a servant of corruption, barbarous writer, while Augustine was more lenient, despite disagreeing with some views of Jovinian. Siricius the bishop of Rome later excommunicated Jovinian and his followers, because he was zealously opposed to any marriage of clergy. Jovinian was also 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 Roman Catholics. See also Proto-Protestantism Antidicomarianites Bonosians Helvidius Vigilantius Aerius Sarmatio Barbatinus References Hunter, David G., "Rereading the Jovinianist Controversy: Aestheticism and Clerical Authority in Late Ancient Christianity," in Dale B. Martin and Patricia Cox Miller (eds), The Cultural Turn in Late Ancient Studies: Gender, Asceticism, and Historiography (Durham (NC), Duke University Press, 2005), 119–135. Hunter, David G. Marriage, Celibacy, and Heresy in Ancient Christianity: The Jovinianist Controversy (Oxford, OUP, 2007) (Oxford Early Christian Studies). External links Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, Volume III: Nicene and Post-Nicene Christianity. A.D. 311-600. § 46. Opposition to Monasticism. Jovinian. 4th-century Christian theologians People excommunicated by the Catholic Church 4th-century Romans 4th-century Latin writers Proto-Protestants