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The Church Fathers · 393
Against Jovinian
Jerome · c. 347–420
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What it is
A violent reply to a monk who argued that marriage and virginity are equally meritorious — so violent that Jerome's friends tried to withdraw it from circulation.
Why it lasted
It fixed the Western hierarchy of virginity over marriage for a millennium, and provoked the counter-arguments that produced Augustine's more balanced treatments.
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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