GIOVINIANO. – Erection in the 4th century. No information is known about his origin and early education; likewise unknown are the place and date of his death. Around 385, after having lived for some time in the practices of the most rigorous asceticism, he suddenly changed his life, giving himself over to a life of pleasure and revelry. To justify this new way of life, he wrote works that are now lost.
Their content, however, can be known from the writings of those who refuted them, and in particular from Jerome, and can be summarized as follows: 1) there is no difference whatsoever between the various states of social life: virgins, married persons, and widows, provided they have received Baptism, are equal; 2) whoever has been regenerated by Baptism can no longer sin, nor be subject to the temptations of the devil; 3) there is no difference in merit between an abstemious life and participating in a banquet, provided it concludes with giving thanks to the Lord; 4) there is no distinction in heavenly merit among the various degrees of virtue. Because this system of doctrine endangered all Christian morality, G. was accused before Pope Siricius, who in a synod held in 390 condemned his teachings and excommunicated him along with eight followers. To defend himself, G. then published a pamphlet known by the name of *Commentarioli*, in which, citing a series of passages, he attempted to substantiate his theories. Meanwhile, he moved to Milan in the hope of obtaining justice and protection from the Emperor Theodosius; however, Theodosius not only did not receive the heretic but also banished him from Milan. St. Ambrose, to whom Pope Siricius had communicated the sentence of excommunication, with the approval of a synod held in 391, confirmed Rome’s condemnation. From the Milanese synodal letter it appears that G. also denied the perpetual virginity of Mary (St. Ambrose, *Epist.* 42).
From Rome, then, Pammachius thought to send the *Commentarioli* to St. Jerome, who was in Palestine, asking him to write a refutation. Within two weeks, between 392 and 395, the solitary of Bethlehem composed the two books *Adversus Iovinianum*, in which, often following the pamphlet closely, with an abundance of sacred and profane citations and in a vehement and strongly polemical style, he demolished G.’s arguments and in particular extolled the beauty of the virginal state and its superiority over the married state.
Despite the sentences of excommunication from Rome and Milan and the biting refutation of St. Jerome, G. continued to spread his propaganda, and two apostate Milanese monks spread his errors even to Vercelli.