L I B 
v 5 S 1 
L I B 
'LTBERAN', a fmall ifland in the Eaftern Indian Seay 
isear the norrh-eaft coaft of the ifland of Borneo, on which 
are many deer. Lat. 6. 2. N. lon.n6.8.E. 
LIBER'GA, a town of Pruflia, in the palatinate of 
Culm: twenty-fix miles eaft of Culm. 
LI'BERHOF, a town of Pruflia, in the province of Po- 
sr.erelia : eighteen miles fouth-fouth-eaft of Dantzic. 
LIBE'RIA, in Roman antiquity, a feftival obferved on 
the 16th of the kalends of April, at which time the youth 
laid afide their juvenile habit for the toga virilis, or habit 
peculiar to grown men. See the article Toga. 
LIB'ERICH. See Liedberg. 
LIBE'RIUS (Pope), a native of Rome, who, having 
di(charged the duties of different ecclefiaftical offices with 
reputation, was chofen bifhop in 352. Immediately after 
his eleftion he wrote to Athanafius, fummoning him to 
snpear at Rome, and clear himfelf from the accufations 
preferred againft him by the eaftern bifhops. It (hould 
feem he had afterwards a much better opinion of Athana¬ 
fius, and undertook his defence with great zeal. With 
this view he fent legates to a council which the emperor 
Conftantine had fummoned to meet at Arles, but had the 
mortification to hear they had betrayed the caufe entrufted 
to them. When Liberius was told of the conduit of his 
deputies, he was filled with refentment and forrow, and 
disavowed it in the ltrongeft terms, as well in his decla¬ 
rations as in his correfpondence. He requefted the em¬ 
peror to affemble a new council, for the purpofe of exa¬ 
mining the matters in difpute between Athanafius and 
his opponents, and of reftoring peace and tranquillity to 
the catholic church. A council was accordingly held at 
Milan in 355, at which there were 300 weftern bifhops, 
•and a few from the eaft. So far from calm difcuftion into 
the merits of the queftion, the emperor infifted upon it, 
as a preliminary meafure, that they fhould give their fig- 
natures to the condemnation of Athanafius, and alfo to an 
edift containing the chief tenets of Arius, which had 
been publifhed in his name. Thofe who had refolution 
to oppofe the will of the emperor were threatened with 
kiftant execution, and were a&ually banifhed. Such were 
the means ufed by Conftantius in obtaining the fignatures 
of by far the greater part of the weftern bifhops to the 
condemnation of Athanafius; but Liberius (till declared 
in his favour, and exerted himfelf, by all the means in 
his power, to gain others to his party. At length, the 
emperor having failed, by threats and proffered bribes, to 
gain the fuffrages of the pope, he determined to apprehend 
liim, and gave his order accordingly. This was executed 
in the dead of night, to prevent any commotion among 
the people, who were much attached, to their bifhop ; he 
was carried firft to Milan, and thence to Berrea in Thrace. 
The hardfhips which Liberius experienced in exile, dif- 
pofed him to yield to conditions which at one time he 
would have rejected with the utmoft indignation. He not 
only fubfcribed to the condemnation of Athanafius, but 
received, as catholic, the Arian confefiion, and made 
other conceflions (till more difgraceful to his reputation 
as bifhop of the holy Roman fee. Before he could reach 
Rome, the emperor had embraced the doctrine of the 
Setni-Arians, and obliged Liberius to do the fame; fo that 
this pontiff, who, of courfe, was always the infallible head 
of the church, became by turns an Athanafian, an Arian, 
a-nd a Semi-Arian. On account of his obedience, he was 
permitted to return to Rome, on condition that he fhould 
govern the church jointly with Felix II. Liberius arrived 
at Rome in Augult 358, and entered the city in a kind 
of triumph, being met on the road, and received by the 
people at large with loud acclamations of joy. He died 
in September 366, after he had prefided over the Roman fee 
fourteen years; and, notwithftanding his repeated change 
of religious opinions, he is honoured both by the Latin 
and Greek churches as a faint. “ A Dialogue with the 
Emperor Conftantius” is afcribed to Liberius; fo, like- 
wife, are twelve Letters, inlerted in the fecond volume of 
the Collect. Concil. Cave's HiJl.Lit, 
LIBER’TA 9 . See Liberty. 
Vol.XII. N0.S5*. 
LIBERTA'TE PROBAN'DA, an ancient writ which 
lay for fuch as, being demanded for .villeins, offered to 
prove themfelves free; direfted to the (heriff, that he fhould 
take fecurity of them for the proving of their freedom be¬ 
fore the juftices of aftife, and that in the mean time they 
fhould be unmblefted. See Tenures. 
LIBERTAT'IBUS ALLOCAN'DIS, a writ lying for a 
citizen or burgefs, impleaded contrary to his liberty, to 
have his privilege allowed. Reg. Orig. 
LIBER/TI,y. pi Thofe, among the Romans, who had 
been flaves, but were made free. 
LIB'ERTINAGE,/. Libertinifm. Cole. 
LIB'ERTINE,yi [ libertin , French.] One unconfined ; 
one at liberty : 
When he fpeaks. 
The air, a charter’d libertine, is ftill; 
And the mute wonder lurketh in men’s ears, 
To fteal his fweet and honied fentences. Skakefp. Henry V. 
One who lives without reftraint or law.—Want of power 
is the only hound that a libertine puts to his views upon 
any of the fex. Clarijfa. 
Man, the lawlefs libertine, may rove, 
Free and unqueftion’d. Rome's Jane Shore. 
One who pays no regard to the precepts of religion.—That 
word may be applied to fome few libertines in the audience. 
Collier's View of the Stage. 
They fay this town is full of couzenage, 
Difguifed cheaters, prating mountebanks, 
And many fuch-like libertines of fin. S’takefpeare. 
LIB'ERTINE, adj. Licentious; irreligious.—There 
are men that marry not, but chnfe rather a libertine and 
impure fingle life, than to be yoked in marriage. Bacon. 
LIB'ERTINES, in fcripture hillory, the denomination 
of a clafs of Jews, or Jewifh profelytes, who had a fyna- 
gogue at Jeruialem, which is mentioned in the book of 
Ails, ch. vi. 9. As libertinus, or libertine, denoted a per- 
fon who had been a flave, but who had obtained his free¬ 
dom ; or one who was the fon of a perfon that had been a 
flave, and was afterwards made free; feveral learned men 
have fuppofed, that the libertines above-mentioned were 
Jews, or profelytes of the Jewifh religion, who had been 
flaves to Roman matters, and had been made free, or the 
children of fuch. In proof of this, the learned Lardner 
alleges, that there was a great number of Jews at Rome; 
and, according to Philo, they occupied a large quarter of 
the city; and they were chiefly fuch as had been taken 
captive at feveral times, and had been carried into Italy, 
and were made free by their Roman mailers. That fhele 
Jews were called Libertines, appears plainly from paffages 
which Lardner has cited from Tacitus, Jofephus, and Sue¬ 
tonius, in which ijtey fpeak of the banifhment of the Jews 
from Rome in the reign of Tiberius. Jofephus and Sue¬ 
tonius exprefsly call thofe Jews, whom Tacitus calls men 
of the libertine race-, and, as there were many of them at 
Rome, it is not at all unlikely that they had a lynagogue 
at Jerufalem. 
Libertines, Libertini, in ecclefiaftical hiftory, a religi¬ 
ous feed, which arofe in the year 1525, whofe principal te¬ 
nets were, that the Deity was the foie operating caufe in 
the mind of man, and the immediate author of all human 
aftions ; that, confeauently, the diftinclions of good and 
evil, which had been eftablifhed with regard to thofe ac¬ 
tions, were falfe and groundlefs, and that men could not, 
properly fpeaking, commit fin; that religion confifted in 
the union of the lpirit, or rational foul, with the Supreme 
Being; that all thofe who had attained this happy union, 
by, lublime contemplation and elevation of mind, were 
then allowed to indulge, without exception or reftraint, 
their appetites or paffions; that all their actions and pur- 
fuits were then perfectly innocent ; and that, after the 
death of the body, they were to be united to the Deity. 
They likewife laid that Jefus Chrift was nothing but a mere 
je nefi-ei quoi, compofed of the Lpirit of GorU and of the 
