ABSTRACT
Gallic ecclesiastical writers of the fifth and sixth centuries participated enthusiastically in debates over topics ranging from grace and free will to the nature of the soul. The Gauls felt free to agree or disagree with other Christian intellectuals of their day, and no writers were accepted solely on the basis of their authority. According to Stefan Rebenich, for example, "there is no doubt that, after Rome, southern Gaul was the most important center of Jerome's contacts". One of Jerome's earliest Gallic correspondents, Pontius Meropius Paulinus, had moved away from Gaul, first to Barcelona and then to Nola in Italy, before his correspondence with Jerome even began. Jerome's dealings with Paulinus followed an interesting trajectory. At first, in the middle 390s, relations were very cordial, at least in part because Paulinus was sending Jerome financial subsidies. Jerome was directly cited only once as an authority in a Gallic theological controversy.
