Lebetif, Jean, a French priest and antiquary, was born at Auxerre INIarch 6, 1687, and became a priest in the cathedral of his native place. Later he made an antiquarian visit through France, and in 1740 was cho- sen a member of the Academy of Inscriptions, for which he wrf)te many memoirs. He died in 1700. Lebeuf published several dissertations on French history, for a hst of which, see Iloefer, Nouv. Biorj. Gin. xxx, 84.
Lebi, Lebiyah. See Lton.
Leblond, Gaspakd jMichei-, a noted French eccle- siastic and antiquary, was born at Caen Nov. 24, 1738, and, after entering the priesthood, became abbot of Ver- mort. Later he lived in Paris as keeper of the Jlaza- rin Library. He was also a member of the Institute, and wrote several archaeological treatises. He died June 17, 1S09. See Hocfer, Nouv. Bioy. Gen, xxx, 97.
Leboii, JosKPir, a noted French priest and politi- cian, was born Sept.25, 1765, at Arras; pursued his stud- ies under the Brethren of the Oratory, and entered their order afterwards; then taught rhetoric at one of their colleges; but upon the outbreak of the Revolution he caught the intoxication of the hour, and finally became one of the worst Terrorists, mingling beastly profligacy with unquenchable bloodthirstiness. He w'as particu- larly severe upon the clergy, more especially monastics ; but when the reaction set in he suffered for his conduct death-punishment by the guillotine in 1795, at Amiens. See Lacroix's Pressense, Ileliyion and the litiyn of Ter- ror, p. 200, 407.
Lebonah. See Fuanivincense.
Lebo'nah (Heb. Lehonah', tMi'^zb, frankincense, as often ; Sept. Af/Swva), a town near Shiloh, north of the spot where the Benjamite youth were directed to cap- ture the Shilonite maidens at the yearly festival held " on the north side of Bethel, on the east side of the highway that goeth up from Bethel to Shechem" (Judg. xxi, 19). The earliest modern mention of it is in the Itinerary of the Jewish traveller hap-Parchi (A.D. cir. 1320), who describes it under the name of Lubin, and refers especially to its correspondence with the passage in Judges (see Asher's j5e?!/«7«2« ofTudela,n,i3b). Bro- cardus mentions it as a very handsome village, by the name of Leinna, four leagues south of Nablus, on the right hand of the road to Jerusalem (chap, vii, p. 178). The identity of this place was again suggested by Maun- drell, who calls it Leban {Trav. p. 86). It is no doubt the Lubban visited by Dr. Eobinson on his way from Je- rusalem to Nablus (Bib. Researches, iii, 90). He de- scribes the khan el-Lubban as being now in ruins ; but near by is a fine fountain of running water. From it a beautiful oval plain extends north about fifteen minutes, with perhaps half that breadth, h'ing here deep among the high rocky hills. About the middle of the western side, a narrow chasm through the mountain, called wady el-Lubban, carries off the waters of the plain and sur- rounding tract. The village of Lubban is situated on the north-west acclivity, considerably above the plain. It is inhabited; has the appearance of an old place ; and in the rocks above it are excavated sepulchres (comp. De Saulcy, Nurratice, i, 94, 95; Schwarz, Palest, p. 130; Wilson, ii, 292 sq. ; Bonar, p. 303 ; Mislin, iii, 319 ; Por- ter, Handbook, p. 330; Van de Yelde, Memoir, p. 330; Tristram, p. 160).
Lebrija, /Elius Antonius of (or Lebrixa. vul- garly Xeb}-issensis, from Lebrixa or Lebrija, the old Ne- brissa, on the Guadalquivir), "un humanista de prima nota," the Erasmus of Spain, was born at that place in 1442 according to Munnoz (Nichol. Anton and Cave spy 1444). He studied in his native city, and afterwards went to the University of Salamanca. In 1461 he went to Italy to perfect himself in the classics. He visited the best schools, heard the most renowned teachers, and made great proficiency in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, etc., and even in theology, jurisprudence, and medicine. Af- ter ten years thus employed he returned to Spain, in- tending to effect a reformation, and with the special aim of promoting classical learning, in the universities of that country. He first labored in an unofficial way, and as teacher in the coUege of San Miguel at Seville ; but Sal- amanca was the object of his ambition. His lessons met with great success, and he soon became popular through- out Spain. He contributed very largely to the expulsion of barbarism from the seats of education, and to the diffu- sion of a taste for elegant and useful studies. He also published a large ntmiber of philological works, such as Latin, Greek, and Hebrew grammars, and especially a Latin lexicon, which was enthusiastically received by the universities of all countries. He likewise ajiplicd philology to theology, and by that means caused it to make a great progress: in order to correct the text of the Vulgate, he compared it with the older texts, the Hebrew and Greek originals, and was one of the chief
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writers on the Polyglot of the Alcala, prepared under the direction of cardinal Xiinenes. Tliis course natu- rally brought him into conflict with the scholastics, whose system had to his day prevailed. He was charged with having approached the intricate subject of theol- ogy without any knowledge of it, and to have under- taken an unprecedented labor on the mere strength of his philological talents. The Inquisition interfered, and part of his BibUcal works were prohibited. He, how- ever, protested against this measure in his Apologia, addressed to his protector, cardinal Ximenes, and had it not been for the interference of the latter, and of oth- er intluential friends at the court, he vrould no doubt have suffered severely (compare his Apulor/kt, in An- tonii Bihl, Hisp. Vet. ii, 310 sq.) ; as it was, he was ap- pointed, in 1513, professor of Latin literature at the newly established University of Alcala de Henares (^Complti- iuni), and here was suffered to end his days in peace. He died Jul}' 2, 1522, according to Munnoz. Most of his v.'orks are still extant, among them a history of the reign of Ferdinand the Catholic, made by order of that prince, under the title Decades dace, etc. (posthumously edited, 15i5). See Nicolai Antonii Bihliotheca Hispana (Rom. 1672), p. 104 A, 109 B; Du Pin, Nora: Bibl. des Auteurs Eccles. xiv, 120-123 ; Guil. Cave, Scj-iptor. eccl. Jlistoria litter. (Geneva;, 1094), Appendix, p. 116 B, 118 A; Hefele, Cardinal Ximenes, \x 116, 124, 379, 458 ; Islnn- noz, Elogio de Antonio de Lebriju, in the Memorias de la real Academia de la Ilistoria, iii, 1-30; Herzog, Real- Eiici/klop. viii, 265 ; ]\I'Crie, Reformation in Spain, p. 61, 75, i05. '(J.H.W.)