Jovinian (Latin: Iovinianus; died c. 405) was an opponent of Christian asceticism in the 4th century and was condemned as a heretic at synods convened in Rome under Pope Siricius and in Milan by Ambrose in 393 because of his views.

[3] John Henry Newman called Aerius of Sebaste, Jovinian and Vigilantius the forerunners of Protestantism, likening them to the "Luther, Calvin, and Zwingli of the fourth century".

He became the leader of a group of disciples: Auxentius, Genialis, Germinator, Felix, Prontinus, Martianus, Januarius and Ingeniosus are identified in the act of 390 condemning him.

I beseech the ground, the young shoots of our plantations, the plants and trees of tenderness snatched from the whirlpool of vice, to grant me audience and the support of many listeners.

Many of Jovinian's views could be considered contrary to ascetic ideals that were gaining prominence in the era, and would ultimately influence what constitutes Roman Catholic orthodoxy today.

If He had cut off the root, how was He to expect fruit If the foundations were not first laid, how was He to build the edifice, and put on the roof to cover all!

Do not marvel then if, placed as we are, amid temptations of the flesh and incentives to vice, the angelic life be not exacted of us, but merely recommended.

Jovinian evidently argued that baptism, administered “with full assurance of faith”, places believers in a state in which the blessings they experience as a result are not diminished by the presence of sin.

In other words, Jovinian argued for what historian David Hunter called the final indefectibility of believers rather than their personal impeccability.

[12] Many scholars have argued that for Jovinian, works did not justify a man, thus holding to a Protestant view of justification, which is by faith alone.

[25][15] From a letter of the 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.

[2] 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.