“Aurum in luto quaerere” (Hier., Ep. 107,12). Donne tra eresia e ortodossia nei testi cristiani di IV-V sec

Jerome not only defines heretical women as mulierculae, but in his eyes, they are ‘carried about with every wind of doctrine, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of truth’. Here, he takes up the traditional belief about women. The concept of woman as prone to heresy ‘by nature’ is derived from the notion of weakness characterizing the female figure. In ancient thought, human perfection is a male prerogative. The female is characterized by weakness (astheneia) while the man is connoted by virtue and strength (andreia). Based on a false etymology, Latins connected mulier to mollities, while the term ‘vir’ was associated with virtus and vis. Mulier a mollitie: in Jerome's writings women are often associated with imbecillitas, too. Imbecillitas feminea or imbecillitas muliebris is an aspect of the precarious condition of imbecillitas humana, so to the fragility, typical of the human condition, the woman adds another one peculiar to her gender.