Pomerius the Bishop

Pomerius, a native of Mauretania, was ordained a presbyter in Gaul. He composed a dialectical treatise in eight books, On the Nature of the Soul and Its Properties, and also one On the Resurrection, on what it means in particular for the faithful in this life and in general for all people, written in clear language and style, in the form of a dialogue between Julian the bishop and Verus the presbyter. The first book contains discussions of what the soul is, and in what sense it is thought to be created in the image of God. The second asks whether the soul should be thought of as bodily or bodiless. The third asks how the soul of the first man was made. The fourth asks whether the soul that is put into the body at birth is newly created and without sin, or whether, produced from the substance of the first man like a shoot from a root, it brings with it the original sin of the first man. The fifth gives a review of the fourth book of the discussion, and an inquiry into what the soul is capable of, that is, what its possibilities are, and holds that it gains this capability from a single and pure will. The sixth asks where the conflict between the flesh and the spirit, which the apostle speaks of, comes from. The seventh treats the difference between the flesh and the spirit with respect to life, death and resurrection. The eighth gives answers to questions about the things it is foretold will happen at the end of the world, that is, to the questions usually raised about the resurrection. I remember once reading a work of exhortation by him, addressed to someone named Principius, On Contempt for the World and for Passing Things, and another entitled On Vices and Virtues. He is said to have written still other works, which have not come to my knowledge, and to be writing still. He is still living, and his life is worthy of the Christian profession and of his rank in the church. [a]