Sharers in the Contemplative Virtue: Julianus Pomerius’s Carolingian Audience

Sometime between the end of the fifth century and the early sixth, the priest, grammarian, and rhetorician Julianus Pomerius composed a hortatory guidebook for bishops entitled De vita contemplativa. In the centuries following its composition, this paranetic text became erroneously attributed to Prosper of Aquitaine, the famous defender of Augustine’s doctrine of grace in mid-fifth-century Gaul. Consequently, Pomerius’s text was lent discernible authority, both through Prosper’s well-known connection to Augustine as well as through the apparent Augustinianism of the text itself. The De vita contemplativa was also often paired closely with the work of Gregory the Great, which served to further enhance the importance of the text for Carolingian bishops. As this article argues, Pomerius’s contention, that not only monks, but also worldly bishops could achieve an earthly form of perfection through a rigorous adherence to their duties as “watchmen,” proved remarkably appealing, and useful, to the Carolingian episcopate.