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What argument did St. Jerome make in Adversus Jovinianum?
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St. Jerome
Saint Jerome, oil on canvas by José de Ribera (Jusepe de Ribera, Lo Spagnoletto), c. 1638–40; in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art.
In his polemical work Adversus Jovinianum (393), St. Jerome argued against the monk Jovinian, who had asserted that virginity and marriage were equal in status. Jerome’s response was a vigorous defense of the superiority of virginity, though the work is noted for being needlessly crude and heavily influenced by the harsh views on marriage held by the theologian Tertullian.1