§ 46, orPOsinoN to monasticism. joainian. 227
engaging either the cooperation or the admiration of the wliole 'church, yet it was not exempt from opposition. And opposition sprang from very different quarters : now from zealous defenders of heathenism, like Julian and Libanius, who hated and bitterly reviled the monks for their fanatical opposition to temples and idol-worship ; now from Christian statesmen and emperors, like Yalens, who were enlisted against it by its withdrawing so much force from the civil and military service of the state, and, in the time of peril from the barbarians, encouraging idleness and 2)assive contemj^lation instead of active, lieroic virtue ; now from friends of worldly indulgence, who found themselves unpleasantly disturbed and rebuked by the religious earnestness and zeal of the ascetic life ; lastly, however, also from a liberal, almost protestant, conception of Christian morality, which set itself at the same time against the worship of Mary and the saints, and other abuses. This iast form of opposition, however, existed mostly in isolated cases, was rather negative than positive in its character, lacked the spirit of wisdom and moderation, and hence almost entirely disappeared in the fifth century, only to be revived long after, in more mature and comprehensive form, when monasticism had fulfilled its mission for the world.
To this class of opponents belong Helvidius, Jovinian, Vigilantius, and Aerius. The first three are known to us through the passionate replies of Jerome, the last through the Panarion of Epiphanius. They figure in Catholic church history among the heretics, while they have received from many Protestant historians a place among the " witnesses of the truth " and the forerunners of the Reformation.
We begin with Jovinian, the most important among them, who is sometimes compared, for instance, even by Neander, to Luther, because, like Luther, he was carried by his own ex perience into reaction against the ascetic tendency and the doctrines connected with it. He wrote in Rome, before the year 390, a work, now lost, attacking monasticism in its ethical principles. He was at that time himself a monk, and probably remained so in a free way until his death. At all events he never married, and, according to Augustine's account, he ab-
228 TiriKD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
•stained "for the present distress," ' and from aversion to tlie encumbrances of the married state. Jerome pressed him with the alternative of marrying and proving the equality of celibacy with married life, or giving up his 0])position to his own condition." Jerome give^ a very unfavorable picture of his character, evidently coloriid by vehement bitterness. He calls Jovinian a servant of corruption, a barbarous writer, a Cln-istian Epicurean, who, iihor having once lived in strict asceticism, now preferred earth to heaven, vice to virtne, his belly to Christ, and always strode along as an elegantly dressed bridegroom. Augustine is much more lenient, only reproaching Jovinian with having misled many Roman nuns into marriage by holding before them the examples of pious women in the Bible. Jovinian was probably provoked to question and oppose monasticisin, as Gieseler supposes, by Jerome's extravagant praising of it, and by the feeling against it, which the death of Blesilla (384) in Eomc confirmed. And he at first found extensive sympathy. But he was excommnnicated and banished with his adherents at a council about the year 390, by Siricius, bishop of Rome, who was zealously opposed to the marriage of priests. He then betook himself to Milan, Avhere the two monks Sarmatio and Barbatian held forth views like nis own ; but he was treated there after the same fashion by the bishop, Ambrose, who held a council against him. From this time he and his party disappear from history, and before the year 406 he died in exile.'
According to Jerome, Jovinian held these four points : (1) Yii'gins, widows, and married persons, who have once been baptized into Christ, have equal merit, other things in their conduct being equal. (2) Those, who are once with full
" 1 Cor. vii. 26.
' Adv. Joviii. lib. i. c. 40 (Opera, ii. 304) : " Et taincn iste formosus nionachus, crassus, nitidus, dealbatns, et quasi aponsus semper incedens, aut uxorovn ducnt ut scqualem virginitatem nuptiis probet ; aut, si non duxcrit, frustra contra nos verbis agit, cum opere nobiscnm sit."
' Augustine says, De lucr. o. 82: "Cito is^ta bfcresis oppressa et cxtincta est;" and Jerome writes of Jovinian, in 406, Adv. Vigilant, c. 1, that, after having been condemned by the authority of the Roman chirch, he dissipated his mind in the eu joyment of bis lusts.