[1] Amongst other remarkable negroes that Liberian education produced
was Dr E. W. Blyden (b. 1832), the author of many works dealing with
negro questions.
LIBERIUS, pope from 352 to 366, the successor of Julius I., was
consecrated according to the _Catalogus Liberianus_ on the 22nd of May.
His first recorded act was, after a synod had been held at Rome, to
write to Constantius, then in quarters at Arles (353-354), asking that a
council might be called at Aquileia with reference to the affairs of
Athanasius; but his messenger Vincentius of Capua was compelled by the
emperor at a conciliabulum held in Arles to subscribe against his will a
condemnation of the orthodox patriarch of Alexandria. In 355 Liberius
was one of the few who, along with Eusebius of Vercelli, Dionysius of
Milan and Lucifer of Cagliari, refused to sign the condemnation of
Athanasius, which had anew been imposed at Milan by imperial command
upon all the Western bishops; the consequence was his relegation to
Beroea in Thrace, Felix II. (antipope) being consecrated his successor
by three "catascopi haud episcopi," as Athanasius called them. At the
end of an exile of more than two years he yielded so far as to subscribe
a formula giving up the "homoousios," to abandon Athanasius, and to
accept the communion of his adversaries--a serious mistake, with which
he has justly been reproached. This submission led the emperor to recall
him from exile; but, as the Roman see was officially occupied by Felix,
a year passed before Liberius was sent to Rome. It was the emperor's
intention that Liberius should govern the Church jointly with Felix, but
on the arrival of Liberius, Felix was expelled by the Roman people.
Neither Liberius nor Felix took part in the council of Rimini (359).
After the death of the emperor Constantius in 361, Liberius annulled the
decrees of that assembly, but, with the concurrence of SS. Athanasius
and Hilarius, retained the bishops who had signed and then withdrawn
their adherence. In 366 Liberius gave a favourable reception to a
deputation of the Eastern episcopate, and admitted into his communion
the more moderate of the old Arian party. He died on the 24th of
September 366.
His biographers used to be perplexed by a letter purporting to be from
Liberius, in the works of Hilary, in which he seems to write, in 352,
that he had excommunicated Athanasius at the instance of the Oriental
bishops; but the document is now held to be spurious. See Hefele,
_Conciliengesch_. i. 648 seq. Three other letters, though contested by
Hefele, seem to have been written by Liberius at the time of his
submission to the emperor. (L. D.*)
LIBER PONTIFICALIS, or GESTA PONTIFICUM ROMANORUM (i.e. book of the
popes), consists of the lives of the bishops of Rome from the time of St
Peter to the death of Nicholas I. in 867. A supplement continues the
series of lives almost to the close of the 9th century, and several
other continuations were written later. During the 16th century there
was some discussion about the authorship of the _Liber_, and for some
time it was thought to be the work of an Italian monk, Anastasius
Bibliothecarius (d. 886). It is now, however, practically certain that
it was of composite authorship and that the earlier part of it was
compiled about 530, three centuries before the time of Anastasius. This
is the view taken by Louis Duchesne and substantially by G. Waitz and T.
Mommsen, although these scholars think that it was written about a
century later. The _Liber_ contains much information about papal affairs
in general, and about endowments, martyrdoms and the like, but a
considerable part of it is obviously legendary. It assumes that the
bishops of Rome exercised authority over the Christian Church from its
earliest days.
_The Liber_, which was used by Bede for his _Historia Ecclesiastica_,
was first printed at Mainz in 1602. Among other editions is the one
edited by T. Mommsen for the _Monumenta Germaniae historica. Gesta
Romanorum pontificum_, Band i., but the best is the one by L.
Duchesne, _Le Liber pontificalis: texte, introduction, commentaire_
(Paris, 1884-1892). See also the same writer's _Étude sur le Liber
pontificalis_ (Paris, 1877); and the article by A. Brackmann in
Herzog-Hauck's _Realencyklopädie_, Band xi. (Leipzig, 1902).
LIBERTAD, or LA LIBERTAD, a coast department of Peru, bounded N. by
Lambayeque and Cajamarca, E. by San Martin, S. by Ancachs, S.W. and W.
by the Pacific. Pop. (1906 estimate) 188,200; area 10,209 sq. m.
Libertad formerly included the present department of Lambayeque. The
Western Cordillera divides it into two nearly equal parts; the western
consisting of a narrow, arid, sandy coast zone and the western slopes of
the Cordillera broken into valleys by short mountain spurs, and the
eastern a high inter-Andine valley lying between the Western and Central
Cordilleras and traversed by the upper Marañon or Amazon, which at one
point is less than 90 m. in a straight line from the Pacific coast. The
coast region is traversed by several short streams, which are fed by the
melting snows of the Cordillera and are extensively used for irrigation.
These are (the names also applying to their valleys) the Jequetepeque or
Pacasmayo, in whose valley rice is an important product, the Chicama, in
whose valley the sugar plantations are among the largest and best in
Peru, the Moche, Viru, Chao and Santa; the last, with its northern
tributary, the Tablachaca, forming the southern boundary line of the
department. The Santa Valley is also noted for its sugar plantations.
Cotton is produced in several of these valleys, coffee in the Pacasmayo
district, and coca on the mountain slopes about Huamachuco and Otuzco,
at elevations of 3000 to 6000 ft. above sea-level. The upland regions,
which have a moderate rainfall and a cool, healthy climate, are partly
devoted to agriculture on a small scale (producing wheat, Indian corn,
barley, potatoes, quinua, alfalfa, fruit and vegetables), partly to
grazing and partly to mining. Cattle and sheep have been raised on the
upland pastures of Libertad and Ancachs since early colonial times, and
the llama and alpaca were reared throughout this "sierra" country long
before the Spanish conquest. Gold and silver mines are worked in the
districts of Huamachuco, Otuzco and Pataz, and coal has been found in
the first two. The department had 169 m. of railway in 1906, viz.: from
Pacasmayo to Yonán (in Cajamarca) with a branch to Guadalupe, 60 m.;
from Salaverry to Trujillo with its extension to Ascope, 47 m.; from
Trujillo to Laredo, Galindo and Menocucho, 18½ m.; from Huanchaco to
Roma, 25 m.; and from Chicama to Pampas, 18½ m. The principal ports are
Pacasmayo and Salaverry, which have long iron piers built by the
national government; Malabrigo, Huanchuco, Guañape and Chao are open
roadsteads. The capital of the department is Trujillo. The other
principal towns are San Pedro, Otuzco, Huamachuco, Santiago de Chuco
and Tuyabamba--all provincial capitals and important only through their
mining interests, except San Pedro, which stands in the fertile district
of the Jequetepeque. The population of Otuzco (35 m. N.E. of Trujillo)
was estimated to be about 4000 in 1896, that of Huamachuco (65 m. N.E.
of Trujillo) being perhaps slightly less.
LIBERTARIANISM (from Lat. _libertas_, freedom), in ethics, the doctrine
which maintains the freedom of the will, as opposed to necessitarianism
or determinism. It has been held in various forms. In its extreme form
it maintains that the individual is absolutely free to chose this or
that action indifferently (the _liberum arbitrium indifferentiae_), but
most libertarians admit that acquired tendencies, environment and the
like, exercise control in a greater or less degree.
LIBERTINES, the nickname, rather than the name, given to various
political and social parties. It is futile to deduce the name from the
Libertines of Acts vi. 9; these were "sons of freedmen," for it is vain
to make them citizens of an imaginary Libertum, or to substitute (with
Beza) Libustines, in the sense of inhabitants of Libya. In a sense akin
to the modern use of the term "libertine," i.e. a person who sets the
rules of morality, &c., at defiance, the word seems first to have been
applied, as a stigma, to Anabaptists in the Low Countries (Mark
Pattison, _Essays_, ii. 38). It has become especially attached to the
liberal party in Geneva, opposed to Calvin and carrying on the tradition
of the Liberators in that city; but the term was never applied to them
till after Calvin's death (F. W. Kampschulte, _Johann Calvin_). Calvin,
who wrote against the "Libertins qui se nomment Spirituelz" (1545),
never confused them with his political antagonists in Geneva, called
Perrinistes from their leader Amadeo Perrin. The objects of Calvin's
polemic were the Anabaptists above mentioned, whose first obscure leader
was Coppin of Lisle, followed by Quintin of Hennegau, by whom and his
disciples, Bertram des Moulins and Claude Perseval, the principles of
the sect were disseminated in France. Quintin was put to death as a
heretic at Tournai in 1546. His most notable follower was Antoine
Pocquet, a native of Enghien, Belgium, priest and almoner (1540-1549),
afterwards pensioner of the queen of Navarre, who was a guest of Bucer
at Strassburg (1543-1544) and died some time after 1560. Calvin (who had
met Quintin in Paris) describes the doctrines he impugns as pantheistic
and antinomian.