JOVINIANUS, or JOVIANUS, a Roman monk of heterodox views, who flourished during the latter half of the 4th century. All our knowledge of him is derived from a passionately hostile polemic of Jerome (_Adv. Jovinianum, Libri II._), written at Bethlehem in 393, and without any personal acquaintance with the man assailed. According to this authority Jovinian in 388 was living at Rome the celibate life of an ascetic monk, possessed a good acquaintance with the Bible, and was the author of several minor works, but, undergoing an heretical change of view, afterwards became a self-indulgent Epicurean and unrefined sensualist. The views which excited this denunciation were mainly these: (1) Jovinian held that in point of merit, so far as their domestic state was concerned, virgins, widows and married persons who had been baptized into Christ were on a precisely equal footing; (2) those who with full faith have been regenerated in baptism cannot be overthrown (or, according to another reading, tempted) of the devil; (3) to abstain from meats is not more praiseworthy than thankfully to enjoy them; (4) all who have preserved their baptismal grace shall receive the same reward in the kingdom of heaven.[1] Jovinian thus indicates a natural and vigorous reaction against the exaggerated asceticism of the 4th century, a protest shared by Helvidius and Vigilantius. He was condemned by a Roman synod under Bishop Siricius in 390, and afterwards excommunicated by another at Milan under the presidency of Ambrose. The year of his death is unknown, but he is referred to as no longer alive in Jerome's _Contra Vigilantium_ (406).
[1] See, more fully, Harnack, _Hist. of Dogma_, v. 57.
JOVIUS, PAULUS, or PAOLO GIOVIO (1483-1552), Italian historian and biographer, was born of an ancient and noble family at Como on the 19th of April 1483. His father died when he was a child, and Giovio owed his education to his brother Benedetto. After studying the humanities, he applied himself to medicine and philosophy at his brother's request. He was Pomponazzi's pupil at Padua; and afterwards he took a medical degree in the university of Pavia. He exercised the medical profession in Rome, but the attraction of literature proved irresistible for Giovio, and he was bent upon becoming the historian of his age. He presented a portion of his history to Leo X., who read the MS., and pronounced it superior in elegance to anything since Livy. Thus encouraged, Giovio took up his residence in Rome, and attached himself to Cardinal Giulio de' Medici, the pope's nephew. The next pope, Adrian VI., gave him a canonry in Como, on the condition, it is said, that Giovio should mention him with honour in his history. This patronage from a pontiff who was averse from the current tone of Italian humanism proves that Giovio at this period passed for a man of sound learning and sober manners. After Adrian's death, Giulio de' Medici became pope as Clement VII. and assigned him chambers in the Vatican, with maintenance for servants befitting a courtier of rank. In addition to other benefices, he finally, in 1528, bestowed on him the bishopric of Nocera. Giovio had now become in a special sense dependent on the Medici. He was employed by that family on several missions--as when he accompanied Ippolito to Bologna on the occasion of Charles V.'s coronation, and Caterina to Marseilles before her marriage to the duke of Orleans. During the siege of Rome in 1527 he attended Clement in his flight from the Vatican. While crossing the bridge which connected the palace with the castle of S. Angelo, Giovio threw his mantle over the pope's shoulders in order to disguise his master.