The Letter of Syricius was answered by Ambrose, and signed by him, and several other Bishops, who were still at Milan, where they had met to condemn Ithacius, and his Adherents, for having been accessary to the Death of Priscillian. In their Answer they commend the Pastoral Vigilance of Syricius, and, having briefly declared their Opinion against the other Tenets of Jovinian, dwell on what he had advanced against the Virginity of the Virgin Mary. But they seem to have mistaken his Meaning, in charging him with Manicheism, and supposing him to have held, that our Saviour did not assume a real Body: for he held no such Doctrine, but only charged the Catholics with it, as Austin tells us in express Terms[[1287]]. It is surprising, that such a Question should have thus employed the Thoughts and Attention of so many venerable Prelates, and created such Feuds and Animosities in the Church. Both Parties agreed, that the Virgin Mary had brought forth her Son without the Co-operation or Intercourse of Man; and in that Sense alone she is styled a Virgin.
Law enacted against Jovinian, and his Followers.
From Milan Jovinian returned to the Neighbourhood of Rome, where his Followers continued to assemble, under his Direction, till the Year 398. when the Emperor Honorius, giving Ear to the Complaints of the neighbouring Bishops, enacted a Law, commanding him and his Accomplices to be beaten with Whips armed with Lead, and transported into different Islands[[1288]]. Jovinian himself was confined to the Isle of Boas, on the Coast of Dalmatia[[1289]], where he gave up the Ghost, about the Year 406. in the Midst of the Mirth and Jollity of a Banquet, says Jerom, adding that he was revived in Vigilantius, as Euphorbus was formerly in Pythagoras[[1290]]. Some of Jerom’s Friends in Rome sent him the Book, which Jovinian had composed to explain and defend his Doctrine, begging him to confute it. He readily complied with their Request, and ended his Work in the Year 392. It consisted of Two Books, but met with a very indifferent Reception at Rome. For though he declared from the Beginning, that it was not his Intention to condemn Marriage, and that he had an utter Abhorrence to the Errors of Marcion, of Tatian, and the Manichees, holding Marriage to be sinful; yet the disparaging Terms he made use of in speaking of Marriage, gave great Offence, even to those who professed Continency[[N30]].
[N30]. This induced Pammachius to purchase all the Copies of it he could get, and send them back to the Author, acquainting him in a friendly manner with what had chiefly given Offence[[1]]. This Jerom took as a Token of the most sincere Friendship; and therefore, not satisfied with acknowleging the Obligation he had laid on him, and commending his Conduct as worthy of his great Prudence, and answerable to the Affection which it was owing to, he immediately set about the Apology which Pammachius had advised him to write, and inscribed it to him[[2]].
[1]. Ex Ruff. p. 231. & ep. 52.
[2]. Hier. ep. 51, 52.
Notwithstanding the Severity of the Law I have mentioned above, some still continued to hold, and privately to propagate, the Doctrine of Jovinian, which induced Austin to compose his Treatise on the Advantages of Marriage and Virginity; a Performance far more judicious than that of Jerom, who has taken great Pains to disparage and cry down Marriage, the better to extol Virginity, as if he could not commend the one without condemning the other. Austin, on the contrary, begins his Work with great Encomiums on Matrimony, to which, however commendable, in the End he prefers Virginity. But after all, the Reasons alleged by the one as well as the other, are, if duly weighed, but empty and unconclusive Speculations.
New Disturbances in the Church of Antioch.