L
LAAR, Peter Van. See Laer.
LABADIE, Jean, a notorious fanatic, born in 1610 at Bourg in Guienne, and educated at the Jesuits' college at Bordeaux. After the usual course of study he commenced preaching; and pretending to be favoured with new revelations, he succeeded by his impassioned manner and great fluency of language in making numerous converts. The restrictions of the order not agreeing with his views, which seem to have embraced a considerable degree of familiarity with his female proselytes, he quitted the society and went to Paris, where the bishop of Amiens, having been impressed with his eloquence, presented him to a cure in his diocese. Here he drew crowds of devotees; but some unpleasant rumours with reference to his conduct in a visit to a nunnery at Abbeville, induced him to seek concealment in Paris. He then proceeded to Bazas, and afterwards to Toulouse where the archbishop, deceived by his hypocritical exterior, gave him the direction of a convent of nuns. The liberties which he took with his pupils, under the pretence of restoring the notions of primitive purity and unsuspicious innocence, soon obliged him to flee from this place; and after wandering for some time from village to village under a feigned name, he found his way to Montauban, where in 1650 he publicly joined the Reformed. He was pastor of a church there for eight years, and was then expelled for exciting sedition. He first sought refuge at Orange, from which in 1659 he withdrew to Geneva, and there obtained a large number of partisans, who built a spacious mansion for the purpose of dwelling together in unity according to his social principles. In 1666 he was called to a church at Middleburg, where he created the same unseemly divisions as at other places, and was ordered by the synod of Dort to desist from the exercise of the ministerial functions; but instead of obeying this order, he re-entered Middleburg in triumph at the head of a large crowd, forced the gates of the church, which had been locked against him, and administered the sacrament to his followers. He was then peremptorily ordered to leave the place, and after some wanderings settled at a village near Amsterdam, where he established a printing-press, and proceeded to disseminate his doctrines by means of pamphlets. The Princess-palatine Elizabeth, who had become one of his converts, invited him to Erfurt, where he remained only one year. He then removed to Altona, and there died in 1674. He wrote a considerable number of religious pieces which are quite unworthy of notice; but his disciples, under the name of Labadists, continued to be found in Lower Germany for nearly a century after his death.—G. BL.
LA BARBINAIS-LE-GÉNTIL, a native, it is believed, of St. Malo, who sailed from Cherburg in August, 1714, for Chili, with the view of trafficking in foreign countries. He visited Lima, resided seven months in China, five in the Isle of Bourbon, and returned in 1718, having circumnavigated the globe. He lost all his property, but published the results of his observations in an interesting book, "Nouveau voyage autour du monde, &c., avec une description de la Chine," Paris, 1727.—G. BL.
LABAT, Jean Baptiste, a celebrated French traveller and editor of books of travels, born at Paris in 1663. He belonged to the dominican order of monks, and after teaching mathematics and philosophy at Nancy, was sent in 1693 as a missionary to the West Indies. He remained there till 1705, when he returned on business of the mission to Europe; and after visiting Spain, and residing some years at Civita Vecchia, he retired in 1716 to a convent in Paris, where he spent the rest of his life engaged in preparing for publication not only his own travels, but also the manuscript notes of a great many other travellers. He died at Paris in 1738.—G. BL.
LABBE, Philippe, a learned French jesuit, born in 1607 at Bourges, where he was educated by the jesuits, and afterwards taught theology, philosophy, &c. About 1644 he removed to Paris, where he continued till his death, 25th March, 1677. Labbe was a man of amazing diligence and perseverance, and accumulated an immense amount of information. By some he is said to have been deficient in critical acumen and judgment; and there is truth in this. He was not always capable of weighing the evidence which he brought together, and not unfrequently he arrives at conclusions which subsequent critics have abandoned. It has also been said that he was given to plagiarism, and it is true that he often repeats what has been said by others without acknowledgment. The fact is that his true vocation was that of a compiler; and while he had an instinct which led him to the accumulation of a vast amount of knowledge, he had not original genius to enable him to turn it to the best account. Yet when we consider the number and variety of his works, we must admit that he was endowed with no small versatility of talent, and that we are indebted to him for much that is truly valuable. He undertook more than he was able to accomplish; but some of his unfinished works have been brought to a conclusion since his death. This was the case with his great work on the councils, "SS. Concilia ad regiam editionem exacta, quæ nunc quarta parte prodit auctior," in 18 vols. folio, which Gabriel Cossart completed. His "Concordia sacræ ac profanæ chronologiæ," in 4 vols. folio, was continued by Briet. The "Nova Bibliotheca manuscriptorum," in 2 vols. folio, was left unfinished. The same was the case with some others. The works he actually finished relate to geography, chronology and history, ecclesiastical writers, philology, theology, &c. The style of Labbe is somewhat prolix, and his works generally show that he was more abundant in words and facts than in ideas.—B. H. C.
LABEO, C. Antistius, a Roman lawyer, son of one of the conspirators against Cæsar of the same name. He was of independent spirit, and openly opposed Augustus, and was the head of one of the sects of law, Ateius Capito being his rival.—P. E. D.
LABERIUS, Decimus, a dramatic author of pieces called by the Romans mimes. Of noble birth, he was compelled by Julius Cæsar to appear on the stage in one of his own pieces, and in the prologue expressed his sense of the affront by saying that he had lived a day too long. The titles of some of his writings are preserved by A. Gellius. He died 44 b.c.—P. E. D.
LA BEDOYÈRE, Charles Angelique François Hachet, Count de, one of the victims of Napoleon's return from Elba, was born at Paris in April, 1786. Entering the French army at twenty—handsome, chivalrous, and fascinating—he fought with distinction in the campaigns of 1806 and 1807. He was aid-de-camp to Lannes in the peninsula in 1808, and accompanying his chief to Germany, showed the greatest gallantry at the taking of Ratisbon, and was wounded at Essling by the side of Lannes, who fell in that battle. Appointed aid-de-camp to Eugène Beauharnais, he fought through the Russian campaign of 1812. A colonel at Lutzen and Bautzen, he was wounded in the latter engagement, retired to France to recruit, and at the close of 1813 married a lady of high Bourbonist connections. Through their influence, after Napoleon's relegation to Elba, he received the cross of St. Louis and the command of a regiment stationed at Grenoble. When Napoleon, escaping from Elba, landed near Fréjus, La Bedoyère joined him with his regiment. He was appointed general of brigade, aid-de-camp to the emperor, and a peer. At Waterloo he fought bravely, and was among the last to quit the field. In
