JOVINIAN: A MONASTIC HERETIC IN LATE-FOURTH CENTURY ROME by NEIL BURNETT B. A. The University of Victoria, 1993. A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES (Department of Religious Studies) We accept this thesis as conforming to the required standard THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA April 1996 ©Neil Burnett, 1996 In presenting this thesis in partial fulfilment of the requirements for an advanced degree at the University of British Columbia, I agree that the Library shall make it freely available for reference and study. I further agree that permission for extensive copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted by the head of my department or by his or her representatives, It is understood that copying or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. Department The University of British Columbia Vancouver, Canada Date il rffHiU mL DE-6 (2/88) ABSTRACT In 393 the monk Jovinian was condemned by a Roman synod under Pope Siricius. The monk had argued from Scriptural evidence that married women were equal in merit with widows and virgins; that they who had been baptised in fullness of faith could not be overthrown by the devil; that eating meats and drinking wine with thanksgiving was no less meritorious than abstention from these things; and that there was one reward in the kingdom of heaven for all those who had kept their baptismal vow. This paper is a reconstruction of Jovinian's arguments and motives from the evidence of Jerome's Against Jovinian. It is also an attempt to understand the context in which Jovinian taught, and the nature of and reasons for the swift condemnation of his views by Pope Siricius and Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. I will argue that Jovinian's views were grounded in a sound and relatively conservative biblical and pre-eminently monastic theology, and show that what gave urgency to Jovinian's "mission" was a conviction that the rise of the new ascetic enthusiasm was an eschatological sign, foretold, as he believed, by Paul in a text which became the cornerstone of his arguments, 1 Timothy 4. An important part of this study is a translation, the first made available, of Siricius' Letter 7, and an analysis of this document which is essential for understanding the Jovinianist controversy. This will be followed by a close look at the other centrally important texts, including Ambrose's response to Siricius' letter and to two Jovinianist monks active three years later in Vercelli. I will examine . ii several of Jerome's letters from the early 380s, when he was an ascetic teacher in Rome, through to the period following the hostile reception of"his Against Jovinian at Rome in 393-394. A Catholic theologian, David Hunter, has recently (1987) portrayed Jovinian as an "anti- Manichaean polemicist." I will argue that this is a distortion arising from the theologian's desire to defuse the monk's effective critique of prominent orthodox figures of his day, thereby rendering his vindication less problematic, and will suggest that in the crisis of the Helvidian controversy and the storm of events leading to Jerome's expulsion from Rome, and in the tension between this new ascetic enthusiasm and Jovinian's monastic values lay the probable motives for Jovinian's own conversion from a life of concerted self-denial to a more moderate monasticism, determined above all to avoid the pitfall of self-exaltation associated with extreme ascetic praxis. I will argue that Jovinian is best understood as a monastic heretic, in opposition to recent scholars who have attempted to vindicate him as an "orthodox" figure for his biblically centered and conservative ecclesiology and soteriology. I will maintain that it is important to de-stigmatize the word heretic, and that only this word can meaningfully apply to Jovinian, who chose energetically to dissent from "normative" Christianity as this was defined by the episcopal hierarchy of his day, and, indeed, by the state that would enforce his exile and possibly his death in 398. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ii Table of Contents iv 1. Introduction 1 —The State of the Question: an Overview 13 --Jovinian and his Career: a Chronological Sketch 17 B. THE PRIMARY EVIDENCE 2. Jovinian's Writings in Jerome's Against Jovinian 18 —Summary 52 3. Siricius: Letter 1 54 —Commentary 57 4. Ambrose: Rescriptum ad Siricium Papam 64 5. Jerome: Letters 22, 39,48-50. 77 6. Ambrose: Letter 63 85 7. Codex Theodosiamis 16. 5. 53 89 8. Augustine: De Haeresibus 82 91 C. SECONDARY STUDIES 94 -The Current State of the Question: Hunter 112 D. CONCLUSION 120 E. WORKS CITED 126 iv INTRODUCTION In 392 or 393, Pope Siricius convened a synod in Rome to examine the case of a teacher named Jovinian. A concerned ascetic, the senator Pammachius, had brought some of Jovinian's writings to the Pope; he was disturbed by this teacher's equation of the merit of dedicated virgins and married Christian women, and of fasting and eating with thanksgiving, among other things. Siricius was incensed by these ideas, and concluded the written record of this synod with a harsh judgement: And so, having followed the teaching of the Apostle, that "they have been preaching other than that which we have received,"...Jovinian and [a list of his associates here follows], who set the blaze of the new heresy, and are inventors of blasphemy, shall by divine sentence and by our judgement remain forever condemned outside the Church.1 Thus does Jovinian make his earliest appearance, as condemned heretic2, in the historical record. He had been a monk and the sort of fierce ascetic almost unanimously admired by the Christian intelligentsia of the late fourth century3, but underwent, in J.N.D. Kelly's words, ...a complete change, deciding that mortifications like these had nothing to do with true Christianity. Without ceasing to be a monk or abandoning celibacy, he adopted a more normal, comfortable mode of life...What was more disturbing...he prepared a reasoned presentation [of his views] backed with plentiful citations from Scripture...4 1 Siricius, Letter 7.4: PL 13, p. 1172. 2 * Pope Siricius presided over and announced Jovinian's excommunication and sentence to "perpetual damnation outside the Church" in 390. 3 Jerome, Ad\>ersns Ioviniamim, 1.40, remarks that "...he boasts of being a monk, [but] he has exchanged his dirty tunic, bare feet, common bread and drink of water for a snowy dress, sleek skin, honey wine and dainty dishes..." 4 J.N.D. Kelly, Jerome: His Life and Controversies (New York: 1975), 180-181. 1 This study is an attempt to develop a fresh reconstruction of Jovinian's themes, arguments, and motives, and to gain an understanding of how these were received or rejected by Christians in Jovinian's environment of late-fourth century Italy. In so doing, I hope also to shed some light on some of the issues and challenges faced by Latin Christians in this period with respect to sexuality, identity, and sanctity. My investigation will lead me to suggest that Jovinian's argument is founded on a coherent soteriology and ecclesiology. I will summarise his position in the following way: the Church is the Body of Christ, whose function is pre-eminently to be a vehicle for the Spirit, actively expressing the will and power of God. In such a Church, entered by baptism in faith, such distinctions as are wrought by differing marital status and austerities are of little moment because they are not and cannot be a source of holiness: only God's continuing presence in His people and the continual, active expression of this presence form the locus of the sacred. Participation in this divine activity bestows sanctity (and salvation) without distinction, as refusal to participate in it severs the person from sanctity's Source. The Church is, so to speak, the continuing physical presence of the illimitable God, and its members will therefore be empowered to act beyond the limits of the world's expectations and boundaries. Such acts, expressing the will of God, possess at the very least the status of a soteriological sign, and are the concomitant fruit of real faith.5 I will show that what gave urgency to Jovinian's "mission" was a conviction that the rise of the new ascetic enthusiasm was an eschatological sign, foretold, as he believed, by Paul in a text which became the cornerstone of his arguments—1 Timothy 4: Now the Spirit expressly says that in later times some will depart from the faith by giving heed to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons, through the pretensions of liars whose consciences are seared, who forbid marriage and enjoin abstinence from foods which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth.6 5 See below, pp.51-52. 6 1 Timothy 4.1 -3; the first use of this passage by Jovinian comes at the conclusion of Adv. Iov. 1.5. 2 It is by a careful exploration of the main primary texts, handled chronologically, that I hope to make such a reconstruction. When these texts are available in translation, the translation will be used; it will, however, be controlled by reference to the Latin text provided by Wilhelm Haller in his seminal study Iovinianus1 This study will examine, firstly, Jovinian's writings themselves as these are preserved, with remarkable felicity, in Jerome's Adversus Iovniamim. Jerome is not a writer often noted for fairness and moderation in debate; indeed, J.N.D.