1. The other names being local, this also has been re- ferred to a town called Libertum, in the proconsular province of Africa. This, it is said, would explain the close juxtaposition with CjTene. Suidas recognises AifiipTivoi as wo(.ia i^vovc, and in the CouncU of Car- thage in 411 (Mansi, iv, 265-274, quoted in Wiltsch, Haiidbuch der Kirchlich. Geogr. § 96) we find an Epis- copus Libertinensis (Simon. Ononiaslicon N. Test. p. 99). Against this hypothesis it has been urged (1) that the existence of a tovn Libertum, in the 1st century, is not estabhshed; and (2) that if it existed, it can hardly have been important enough either to have ti synagogue at Jerusalem for the Jews belonging to it, or to take precedence of Cyrene and Alexandria in a sjiiagogue common to the three.
2. Conjectural readings have been proposed, especially Libyans, either in the form AijiodTivtiiv (Gicumen., Beza, Clericus, Valckenaer), or AiftvMv (Schultness. J)e Char. Sp. S. p. 162, in jMeyer, ad loc.) ; inasmuch as Lib- ertini here occurs among the names of nations, and Jo- sephus (^Ant. xii, 1, and Apion, ii, 4) has tuld us that many Jews were removed by Ptolemy, and placed in the cities of Libya. The difticidty is thus removed, but every rule of textual criticism is against the reception of a reading unsupported by a single MS. or version.
3. Taking the word in its received meaning as = freedmen, Lightfoot finds in it a description of natives of Palestine, who, having faUen into slavery, had been manumitted bj' Jewish masters {Exc. on A els vi, 9). In this case, however, it is hardly likely that a body of men so circumstanced woidd have received a Boman name.
4. Grotius and Vitringa explain the word as describ- ing Italian freedmen v/ho had become converts to Ju- ' daism. In this case, however, the word " proseh'tes" would most probablj' have been used ; and it is at least milikely that a body of converts would have had a syn- agogue to themselves, or that proselytes from Italy would have been united with Jews from Cyrene and Alexandria.
5. The earliest explanation of the word (Chrs-sostom) is also that which has been adopted by the most recent authorities. The Libertini are Jews who, having been taken prisoners by Pompey and other Eoman generals in the Syrian wars, had been reduced to slavcrA% and had afterwards been emancipated, and returned, perma- nently or for a time, to the country of their fathers. Of the existence of a large body of Jews in this position at Kome we have abundant evidence. Under Tiberius, the Senatus-Consultum for the suppression of Egyptian and Jewish mysteries led to the banishment of 4000 "Ubertini generis" to Sardinia, under the pretence of militarj' or police duty, but really in the hope that the malaria of the island might be fatal to them. Others were to leave Italy unless they abandoned their religion (Tacitus, Anal, ii, 85; comp. Sueton. Tiber, c. 36). Jo- sephus (A nt. xviii, 3, 5), narrating the same fact, speaks of the 4000 who were sent to Sardinia as Jews, and thus identifies them with the '• libertinum genus" of Tacitus. Philo (Ler/af. ad Cuium, p. 1014, C) in Uke manner says that the greater part of the Jews of Rome were in the position of freedmen {c'nrtkev'SieowSrivTtc), and had been allowed by Augustus to settle in the Trans-Tiberine part of the city, and to follow their own religious cus- toms unmolested (comp. Horace, Sat. i, 4, 143 ; i, 9, 70). The expulsion from Rome took place A.D. 19 ; and it is an ingenious conjecture of Mr. Hurhphreys (Comm. on Acts, ad loc.) that those who were thus banished from Italy may have found their way to Jerusalem, and that, as having suffered for the sake of their religion, they were likely to be foremost in the opposition to a teacher like Stephen, whom they looked on as impugning the sacredness of all that they most revered. The syna- gogue in question had doubtless been built at the ex- pense of these manumitted Jews, and was occupied by them. Libertini is thus to be regarded as a word of Roman origin, and to be explained with reference to Roman customs. Among the Romans this term was employed to denote those who had once been slaves, but had been set at liberty, or the children of such ])er- sons (see Adarm's Rom. A tit. p. 34, 41 sq. ; Smith's JJict. of Class. Antiq. s. v. Ingenui, Libertus). This view is further confirmed by the fact that the word avvaydoyiiQ does not occur in the middle of the national names, but stands first, and is followed by r»)c ^tyopii rjc, whence it clearly appears that hijiep-Xvoi is at least not the name of a country or region. — Smith; Kitto. On this subject, see further in Bloomfield, Kuin61,Wetstein, etc., on Acts vi, 9 ; and comp. D. Gerdes, De St/naff. Liberti- norum (Gron. 1736) ; J. F. Scherer, De Si/naff. Libertin, (x\rgent. 1754) ; Briim, De IJbertinis (Hafn. 1698) ; Ca- demann, De schola Libertinorum (Lips. 1704) ; Loesncr,
LIBERTINES
41'
LIBERTINES
Ohs. in N. Test. p. 180; Deyllng, Ohserv. ii, 437 sq. ; K. Diiring, Ep, qua symigogam Libert, scholam Latinam fuisse conjicit (Laubae, 1755). See Dispersed; Sla- very.
Libertines, The, or, as they called themselves, Sinritualists,vicre: a Pantheistic and Antinomian sect of the Reformation days. They appeared first in the Neth- erlands as an ultra division of the " Brethren of the Free Spirit." They spread into B'ranco, and, by the interest they manifested in political affairs, gained considerable influence also in Switzerland, especially in Geneva. The impulse given to thought by the Reformation gave rise also to many errors, which flourished by the side of evan- gelical truth. " Lofty as our ideas of the Reformation should be, we must not be blind to the fact that .... Protestantism [referring especially to the Continent] bears sad evidence of early mismanagement" (Hurst, Hist, of Rationalism, p. 37). Foremost among the her- etics of this period were the Brethren of the Free Spirit, who, although hotly persecuted, had never been entirely exterminated, and who were yet numerous in Germany and the Netherlands. They now suddenly emerged from the secrecy in which they had lately hidden them- selves, as soon as the power of the Church began to wane. Luther clearly saw, however, that not to Roman- ism, but to Protestantism as well, the influence of the Libertines must be baneful, and he took an early oppor- tunity to warn the Christians of those countries against them {Gieseler, Kirckenr/esch. iii [1], 557). Calvin also had to contend against the influence of these Rational- ists, and, in speaking of them, mentions a certain Coppin, of Lille, as the first who attempted to introduce, as early as 1529, the doctrines of the Free Spirit in his native city. This Coppin was soon eclipsed by his disciple Quintin, of Hennegau, who, with his companion Bertrand, be- came the leader of the sect in France in 153-1, and with whom a priest called Pecquet (Pocques) connected him- self. These two, for Bertrand soon died, are represent- ed as uneducated but shrewd men, who made religion a means of securing earthly goods, and who were very successful in the attempt. They openly professed to have found the principle of " moral falsehood" (or men- tal reservation) inculcated in the Scriptures, and, in con- sequence, thought it but right to profess Roman Cathol- icism when among Roman Catholics, and Protestantism when with Protestants. They are said to h.ave made 4000 proselytes in France alone. Tiiey did not, more- over, confine their attempts at deceit to the lower class- es, but, on the contrary, endeavored to gain proselytes among the learned and in the higher walks of society; they succeeded even in gaining the ear of the queen Margaret of Navarre, sister of Francis I, who received them, as also a certain Lef'evre d'Etaples and others, at her court, and daily consulted with them. They made great use of aUegorj-, figures of speech, etc., taking their authority from the precept, " The letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life."