ABSTRACT
The Adversus Helvidium strikes a piquant note in another way. Jerome's ascetic propaganda in Rome, in addition to so many other forms of opposition, had brought forth a polemical pamphlet wherein a layman named Helvidius thought there ,,,,as no better way to ruin Jerome's contention as to the superiority of celibacy than to attack the doctrine of the perpetual virginity of Mary. We do not know exactly who Helvidius was. Gennadius puts him down as a pupil of Auxentius, the Arian Bishop of Milan. l According to Jerome, he was a man of mediocre talent. 2 However, hc thought it advisable to reply in a short work of twenty-two chapters.
