fathers of the 4th century. He evidently maintained " that there is but one divine element of life, which all believers share in common; but one fellowship with Christ, which jiroceeds from faith in him ; but one new birth. All who possess this in common with each other —all, therefore, who are Christians in the true sense, not barely in out;vard profession — have the same call- ing, the same dignity, the same heavenly blessings ; the diversity of outward circumstances creating no differ- ence in this resi^ect, that all persons whatsoever, if they keep the vows they make to Christ in baptism and live godly lives, have an equal title to the rewards of heav- en, and, consequently, that those who spend their lives in celibacy or macerate their bodies by fasting are no more acceptable to God than those who live in wedlock, and nourish their bodies with moderation and sobriety." He also held that jMary ceased to be a virgin by bring- ing forth Christ ; that the degrees of future blessedness do not depend on the meritoriousness of our good works ; and that a truly converted Christian, so long as he is such, cannot sin wilfully, but will resist and overcome the temptations of the devil. Yet, while upholding all these views, Jovinian himself remained single, and lived like all other monks, and his enemies even admit that the ten- or of his life was always blameless. He first advocated his opinions at Milan, but, being there denied by the stem Ambrose all liberty of speech, he went to Rome, which, as appears from the evidence of Jerome, was one of the last places to entertain the ascetic fanaticism ; nor was it until after monasteries had darkened all parts of the East, as well as many of the West, that these establish- ments were seen in that city. There, according to the report of pope Syricius and others, the doctrine of the Jlilanese monk had made many converts, so that the Church, "torn by dogs" in a manner heretofore un- heard of, doubted whereto so unlooked for an assault might proceed. Not a few of the laity, if not of the clergy, had listened to Jovinian ; and eight persons are named as his supporters, who, with him, were, by a unanimous decision of the Romish clergy, condemned and excommunicated in a council held at Milan m 890, as the authors of a " new heresy, and of blasphemy ;" and they were forever expelled from the Church. " Pi- late and Herod" were at one in this instance. Pope Syricius confirmed the condemnation, the emperor Ho- norius enacted penal laws against the Jovinians, and Jovinian himself was banished to the desolate island of Boa, off the coast of lUyria, and there died before A.D. 406. But Jovinian had also written, as well as preached, in support ot his opinions, which continued to spread on all sides, iititwithstandiiig the teiTors of Church authority. At Rome, although none dared openly to profess Jovinian's heresy, it was nevertheless covertly taught, and was whispered about, even to such an ex- tent that certain nuns fell into matrimony in conse- quence of its prevalence. In this emergency, and in aid of the endeavors of the Romish Church to crush the " monstrous doctrine," the good Augustine, a tool of bad men, came forth in defence of the " orthodox" practices and principles of the ascetics ; and in his trea- tise De bono conjufjali, and in others of a similar kind, he. labors hard, by wily sophistry, to reconcile the pre- vailing absurdities with reason and Scriptiu-e. The mild, pious, and honest Augustine, however, was not the mgn to be the Church's thorough-going champion on tjiis notable occasion : she had a better man at hand ; "one who, by various learning, by a voluble pen, as well as by rancor of temper, and boundless arrogance, and a bUnd devotion to whatever ' the Church' had sanction- ed, was well qualified to do the necessarj' work of cajol- ing the simple, of intianiing the fanatical, of frightening the timid, of calumniating the innocent, and, in a word, of quashing, if it could ije (piashed, all inquiry concern- ing ' authorized' errors and abuses. The Church, right or wrong, was to be justified; the objector, innocent or guilty, was to be crushed ; and Jerome would scruple nothing could he but accomplish so desirable an object."
JOY
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JUAN VALDEZ
See Jerosie. But, not^vithstalKUng these attacks by the Church's three greatest doctors— Augustmc, Am- brose, and Jerome, whose great irritation and anxiety for the cause of the Church is sufficiently betrayed by their determination to oppose Jovinianisra jointly, though living at points quite remote from each other— the '• heresy," instead of dying out, spread, and was fa- vorably tl'.ought of and accepted in different parts of Christendom, and no doubt made easier the task of Vigilantius and of Luther. Neander does not hesitate to rank the ser\-ices of Jovinian so high as to consider him worthy of a place by the side of Luther. See Ne- ander, Ch. Hist, ii, 265 sq. ; Schaft", Ch. Hist, ii, 226 sq. ; Ambrosius, Epist. 42; Augustine, De Hmres. c. 82; Ba- ronius, A males Eccl p. 390, 412 ; Walch, Ketzer/iistorie, iii, 635 sq. ; Baur, Christl. Kirche (4th to 6th century), p. 311 sq.; Lindner, De Joviniano ct Vigilantio purioris (loctrince anfesiffiuinis (Lpz. 1839).