although large areas appear to be uninhabited forest, other parts are most densely populated, owing to the wonderful fertility of the soil. The native tribes belong more or less to the following divisions, commencing on the west, and proceeding eastwards: (1) Vai, Gbandi, Kpwesi, Mende, Buzi and Mandingo (the Vai, Mende and Mandingo are Mahommedans); all these tribes speak languages derived from a common stock. (2) In the densest forest region between the Mano and the St Paul’s river is the powerful Gora tribe of unknown linguistic affinities. (3) In the coast region between the St Paul’s river and the Cavalla (and beyond) are the different tribes of Kru stock and language family—Dē, Basā, Gibi, Kru, Grebo, Putu, Sikoñ, &c. &c. The actual Kru tribe inhabits the coast between the river Cestos on the west and Grand Sesters on the east. It is known all over the Atlantic coasts of Africa, as it furnishes such a large proportion of the seamen employed on men-of-war and merchant ships in these tropical waters. Many of the indigenous races of Liberia in the forest belt beyond 40 m. from the coast still practise cannibalism. In some of these forest tribes the women still go quite naked, but clothes of a Mahommedan type are fast spreading over the whole country. Some of the indigenous races are of very fine physique. In the Nidi country the women are generally taller than the men. No traces of a Pygmy race have as yet been discovered, nor any negroes of low physiognomy. Some of the Krumen are coarse and ugly, and this is the case with the Mende people; but as a rule the indigenes of Liberia are handsome, well-proportioned negroes, and some of the Mandingos have an almost European cast of feature.
Authorities.—Col. Wauwerman, Liberia; Histoire de la fondation d’un état nègre (Brussels, 1885); J. Büttikofer, Reisebilder aus Liberia (Leiden, 1890); Sir Harry Johnston, Liberia (2 vols., London, 1906), with full bibliography; Maurice Delafosse, Vocabulaires comparatifs de plus de 60 langues et dialectes parlés à la Côte d’Ivoire et dans la région limitrophe (1904), a work which, though it professes to deal mainly with philology, throws a wonderful light on the relationships and history of the native tribes of Liberia. (H. H. J.)
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, 1812 m.; from Huanchaco to Roma,
25 m.; and from Chicama to Pampas, 1812 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
