Wealthlessness

In the Gaul of the early sixth century, to reassure monks that they could be bishops meant persuading them that the wealth of the church had come to stay. It was there. The only issue was how to deal with it. [Julianus] Pomerius went out of his way to prove that involvement with the wealth of the church need not pollute them or detract from their spiritual life. It was possible to be both a contemplative and an administrator. The tantalizing disjuncture between the wealth of the church and the studied wealthlessness of its nominal owner, the bishop, was central to Pomerius's argument. Pomerius insisted that the wealth of the church could be administered—indeed, even increased—by persons inspired by the austere distinction between wealth and its mere "managers" delineated by the old Augustine.