Against Jovinianus

Against Jovinianus (Latin: Adversus Jovinianum) is a two-volume treatise by the Church Father Saint Jerome. Jovinianus' propositions Jovinianus, about whom little more is known than what is to be found in Jerome's treatise, published a Latin treatise outlining several opinions: That a virgin is no better, as such, than a wife in the sight of God. Abstinence from food is no better than a thankful partaking of food. A person baptized with the Spirit as well as with water cannot sin (as interpreted by Jerome; other commentators argue that Jovinian was actually referring to the impossibility of lapsing from Christianity) All sins are equal. There is but one grade of punishment and one of reward in the future state. In addition to this, he held the birth of Jesus Christ to have been by a "true parturition"; that is, he disagreed with the common belief of his time, according to which the infant Jesus passed through the walls of the womb, as his resurrected body afterwards did out of the tomb or through closed doors.