Libera'tus
a deacon of the church of Carthage in the sixth century.
He was at Rome in A. D. 533, when the pope, Joannes II., received the bishops sent by the emperor, Justinian I., to consult him on the heresies broached by the monks, designated Acoemetae (or, as Liberatus terms them, Acumici), who had imbibed Nestorian opinions. (Liberat.
Breviar. 100.20, comp.
Epistolae Justiniani ad Joan. and
Joannis ad Justinianum, apud
Concilia vol. iv. col. 1742, &c. ed. Labbe.)
He was again at Rome in 535, having been sent the previous year, together with the bishops Caius and Petrus, by the synod held at Carthage, under Reparatus, bishop of that see, to consult pope Joannes II. on the reception of those Arians who recanted their heresies into the church. Joannes was dead before the arrival of the African delegates; but they were received by pope Agapetus, his successor. (
Epistolae Agapeti ad Reparatum apud
Concilia, ed. Labbe, vol. iv. col. 1791, 1792.) When, in 552, Reparatus was banished by Justinian to Euchaida, or Eucayda (Vict. Tun.
Chron.), Liberatus accompanied him, and probably remained with him till the bishop's death, in 563. Nothing further is known of him.
Works
Liberatus is the author of a valuable contribution to ecclesiastical history entitled
Breviarium Caussae Nestorianorum et Eutychianorum. It comprehends the history of a century and a quarter, from the ordination of Nestorius, A. D. 428, to the time of the fifth oecumenical (or second Constantinopolitan) council, A. D. 553, and is divided into 24 chapters.
It was compiled, as the author tells us in his proem, from " the ecclesiastical history lately translated from Greek into Latin," apparently that translated by Epiphanius Scholasticus [EPIPHANIUS, No. 11], from the Greek ecclesiastical historians; from the acts of the councils and the letters of the fathers, from a document written in Greek at Alexandria, and from the communications, apparently oral, of men of character and weight.
He made considerable use of the
Breviculus Historiae Eutychianistarum, and of other sources of information not particularly mentioned by him. His Latin style is generally clear, without ornament, but unequal, from the bad Latin into which passages from Greek writers have been rendered.
He has been charged with partiality to the Nestorians, or with following Nestorian writers too implicitly.
Editions
The
Breviarium is contained in most editions of the
Concilia (vol. v. ed. Labbe, vol. vi. ed. Coleti, vol. ix. ed. Mansi):
in those of Crabbe (vol. ii. fol. Cologn. 1538 and 1551) are some subjoined passages derived from various extant sources illustrative of the history, which are omitted by subsequent editors; and
Hardouin has in his edition omitted the Breviarium itself.
It was separately published, with a revised text, and a learned preface and notes, and a dissertation, De Quinta Synodo, by the Jesuit Garnier, 8vo. Paris, 1675; and
is reprinted from his edition, with the preface, notes, and dissertation, in the Bibliotheca Patrum of Galland, vol xii. fol. Venice, 1778.
Further Information
Fabric.
Bibl. Graec. vol. 10.543;
Bibl. Med. et Inf. Latinit. vol. 4.272, ed. Mansi; Cave,
Hist. Litt. ad ann. 553; Ceillier,
Auteurs Sacres, vol. xvi. p. 543; Garnier,
Praef in Liberat.[
J.C.M]
