"Sine aliqua differentia graduum" (Hier., "Adv. Iov." 2,19). Ascetismo e matrimonio nella predicazione di Gioviniano

This essay will focus on the Jovinian controversy, starting from the beginning of the accusation by Jerome, who firstly realized the risk of the Roman monk’’s predication, that is the significance and value of virginity (and respectively of marriage) within the ascetic life. This dispute appears more understandable if we consider the situation of monasticism in Rome: at the end of the fourth century many different form of ascetic life is still alive and generally in conflict with each other. Therefore, after a description of the landscape on which the dispute between Jovinian and Jerome rises up, it will be useful to reread some events of the life of two illustrious members ofthe Italic Christian aristocracy, Pammachius and Paulinus of Nola, in order to show how some elements connected to the ascetic life are quite the same.