£82 LIB 
opinion of men. Thefe maxims occafioned their being 
called lilertincs ; and. the word has been ufed in an ill fenie 
ever fince. The libertini fpread principally in Holland 
and Brabant: their leaders were one Quintin, a Picard, 
Pockefius, Ruffus, and another called Chopin, who joined 
with Quintin, and became his difciple. They alfo ob¬ 
tained a temporary footing in France through the favour 
and proteftion of Margaret, queen of Navarre, and filter 
of Francis I. and found patrons in feveral of the reformed 
churches. This fett was probably a remnant of the more 
ancient Begkards, or Brethren of the Free Spirit. 
Libertines of Gene va, were a cabal of rakes rather 
than of fanatics; for they made no pretences to any reli¬ 
gious fyftem, but pleaded only for the liberty of leading 
voluptuous and immoral lives. This cabal was compofed 
of a certain number of licentious citizens, who could not 
bear the fevere difcipline of Calvin, who punifhed with 
rigour,not only dilfolute manners, but alfo whatever bore 
the afpefl of irreiigion and impiety. In this turbulent 
cabal there were feveral perfons who were notorious, not 
only for their dilfolute and fcandalous manner of living, 
but alfo for their atheiftical impiety and contempt of all 
religion. To this odious clafs belonged one Gruet, who 
dented the divinity of the Chriftian religion, the immor¬ 
tality of the foul, the difference between moral good and 
evil, and rejedfed with difdain the dodfrines that are held 
mod facred among Chriftians; for which impieties he was 
at laft brought before the civil tribunal, in the year 1550, 
and condemned to death. Mofhtim's Eccl. Hifl. vol. iv. 
LIBE.R'TINISM,yi [from libertine.'] Irreiigion; licen- 
tioufnefs of opinions and pradfice.—That fpirit of religion 
and ferioufnefs vanilhed all at once, and a fpirit of liberty 
and libertinifm, of infidelity and profanenefs, darted up in 
the room of it. Atterbury's Sermons. 
LIBERTIN'ITY,./ The Hate of one that is made free. 
Scott. 
LIB'ERTON, a town of Scotland, in the county of 
Edinburgh : two miles fouth of Edinburgh. 
LIB'ERTON, a town of Scotland, in the county of 
Lanerk •. feven miles eaft of Lanerk. 
LIBER'TUS, or Liberti'nus, J. Among the Romans, 
a freed-man, or a perfon fet free from a legal lervitude. 
Thefe ftill retained fome mark of their ancient ftate ; he 
who made a Have free having a right erf patronage over 
the libertus; fo that, if the latter failed of fnowing due 
refpedt to his patron, he was rellored to his fervitude; 
and, if the libertus died without children, his patron was 
his heir. In the beginning of the republic, libertinus de¬ 
moted the fon of a libertus, or freed-man ; but afterwards, 
before the time of Cicero, and under the emperors, the 
terms libertus and libertinus, as Suetonius has remarked, 
were ufed as fynonymous. 
LIB'ERTY, f. \_liberte, Fr. libertas, Lat.] Freedom, as 
oppofed to llavery.—My mafter knows of your being here, 
'and hath threatened to put me into everlafting liberty, if I 
tell you of it; for he fvvears, he’ll turn me away. Shake¬ 
speare. 
O liberty ! thou goddefs, heav’nly bright! 
Profufe of blif’s, and pregnant with delight, 
Eternal pleafures in thy prefence reign. Addifon. 
Exemption from tyranny or inordinate government: 
Juftly .thou abhorr’fi 
The foil, who, on the quiet Fate of man 
Such trouble brought, affefting to fubdue 
Rational liberty, yet know withal, 
Since thy original lapfe, true liberty 
Is lolt, which always with right reafon dwells. Milton. 
Freedom, as oppofed to necefiity .—Liberty is the power in 
any agent to do, or forbear, any particular action, accord¬ 
ing to the determination, or thought of the mind, whereby 
either of them is preferred to the other.—As it is in the 
motions of the body, fo it is in the thoughts of our minds: 
where any one is luch, that we have power to take it up, 
LIB 
or Tay it by, according to the preference of the mfnd^ 
there we are at liberty. Locke. See the article Metaphy¬ 
sics. —Privilege; exemption; immunity.—His majefty 
gave not an intire country to any, much lefs did he grant 
jura regalia, or any extraordinary liberties, Davies. —Re¬ 
laxation of reftraint: as, He fees himielf at liberty to chufe 
his condition.—Licenfe they mean when they cry liberty. 
Milton. —Leave; permiflion.—I ftiall take the liberty to 
confider a third ground, which, with fome men, has the 
fame authority. Loc/ie. 
Liberty, in its molt general fignification, is faid to be 
a power to do as one thinks fit, unlefs reftrained by the 
law of the land; and it is well obferved, that human na¬ 
ture is ever an advocate for this liberty; it being the gift 
of God to man in his creation; therefore every thing is 
defirous of it, as a fort of reftitution to its primitive ftate. 
Fortefc. 96. It is upon that account the laws of England 
in all cafes favour liberty, and which is accounted very 
precious, not only in refpedt of the profit which every 
one obtains by his liberty, but alfo in refpecl of the public. 
According to Montefquieu, liberty confifts principally 
in not being compelled to do any thing which the lavr 
does not require; becaufe we are governed by civil laws, 
and therefore we are free living under thofe laws. 
The abfolute rights of man, confidered as a free agents 
endowed with dilcernment to know good from evil,"and 
with power of choofing thofe meafures which appear to- 
him to be the molt delirable, are ufually fummed up in 
one general appellation, and denominated the natural liberty 
of mankind. This natural liberty confifts properly in a 
power of acting as one thinks fit, without any reftraint or 
controul, unlefs by the law of nature; being a right in¬ 
herent in us by birth, and one of the gifts of God to man 
at his creation, when he endowed him with the faculty 
of free will. 1 Comm. c. j. But every man, when he enters 
into fociety, gives up a part of his natural liberty, as the 
price of fo valuable apurchafe; and, in conlideration of 
receiving the advantages of mutual commerce, obliges 
himfelf to conform to thofe laws which the community 
has thought proper to eftablilli. And this fpecies of legal 
obedience and conformity is infinitely more definable than 
that wild and favage liberty which is facrificed to obtain it. 
For no man, that confiders a moment, would wifh to re¬ 
tain the abfolute and uncontrouled power of doing what¬ 
ever he pleafes; the confequence of which is, that every 
other man would alfo have the fame power ; and then 
there would he no fecurity to individuals in any of the 
enjoyments of life. 
Political or civil liberty, therefore, which is that of a 
member of fociety, is no other than natural liberty, fo far 
reftrained by human laws (and no farther) as is neceflary 
and expedient for the general advantage of the public. 
Hence we may collect, that the law, which reftrains a man 
from doing mifehief to his fellow-citizens, though it di- 
minifhes the natural, increafes the civil liberty of man¬ 
kind ; but every wanton and caulelefs reftraint of the will 
of the fubjeft, whether praflifed by a monarch, a nobility, 
or a popular affembly, is a degree of tyranny. Nay, that 
even laws them (elves, whether made with or without our 
confent, if they regulate and conftrain our conduct in 
matters of mere indifference, without any good end in 
view, are laws deftruftive of liberty; whereas, if any pub¬ 
lic advantage can arife from obferving fuch precepts, the 
controul of our private inclinations, in one or two parti¬ 
cular points, will conduce to preferve our general freedom 
in others of more importance, by fupporting that ftate of 
fociety which alone can fecure our independence. Thus 
the ftatute of king Edward IV. which forbade the fine 
gentlemen of thofe times (under the degree of a lord) to 
wear pikes upon their lhoes or boots of more than two 
inches in length, was a law that favoured of oppreffion ; 
becaufe, however ridiculous the fafhion then in ufe might 
appear, the reftraining it by pecuniary penalties could 
ferve no purpofe of common utility. But the ftatute of 
king Charles II. which preferibes a thing feemingly as in¬ 
different. 
