Helvidius, Jovinian, and the Virginity of Mary in Late Fourth-Century Rome

Abstract

Marian doctrine and ascetical theology become increasingly intertwined in the late fourth century West, especially in the writings of Ambrose and Jerome. Helvidius and Jovinian are two Christians who oppose these new developments. Helvidius rejects the doctrine of Mary's virginitas post partum ; Jovinian rejects her virginitas in partu . For both, the Marian teachings represent faulty notions of sin, sexuality and the church. When compared to the ideas of earlier writers, the positions of Helvidius and Jovinian appear to be remarkably consonant with earlier Christian tradition.

Purum taçque coya, Virgen Maria: The Feminine Sacred and the Virgin Mary in Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Quechua Doctrinal Texts

“…The first formulations of the idea that Mary remained a virgin during and after the birth of Jesus appear in the second-century Protoevangelium of James and in the writings of Origen. It was, however, only in the fourth century when the ascetic tendencies of Christianity created the new understanding of the issue: in the writings of Ambrose and Jerome, the virginity of Mary became proof of the superiority of abstinence over sexual activity within marriage (Hunter 1993). The belief in the perpetual virginity of Mary was proclaimed at the Lateran Council in 659.…”

Empress andTheotokos: Gender and Patronage in the Christological Controversy

“…This picture has subsequently come to seem less than perfectly convincing, because both the dedication of the basilica at Ephesus to Mary and the role of Pulcheria as foundress of other Marian basilicas depend entirely on late sources. 8 The possibility has to be considered that the picture of Pulcheria as Marian patroness is an anachronistic projection of the Marian interests of later empresses. There is no evidence to prove that the late sources are mistaken, but their witness is unconfirmed.…”