Part 21

Liguori is the chief representative of a school of casuistry and devotional theology still abundantly represented within the Roman Church. Not that he was in any sense its founder. He was simply a fair representative of the Italian piety of his day--amiable, ascetic in his personal habits, indefatigable in many forms of activity, and of more than respectable abilities; though the emotional side of his character had the predominance over his intellect. He was learned, as learning was understood among the Italian clergy of the 18th century; but he was destitute of critical faculty, and the inaccuracy of his quotations is proverbial. In his casuistical works he was a diligent compiler, whose avowed design was to take a middle course between the two current extremes of severity and laxity. In practice, he leant constantly towards laxity. Eighteenth-century Italy looked on religion with apathetic indifference, and Liguori convinced himself that only the gentlest and most lenient treatment could win back the alienated laity; hence he was always willing to excuse errors on the side of laxity as due to an excess of zeal in winning over penitents. Severity, on the other hand, seemed to him not only inexpedient, but positively wrong. By making religion hard it made it odious, and thus prepared the way for unbelief. Like all casuists, he took for granted that morality was a recondite science, beyond the reach of all but the learned. When a layman found himself in doubt, his duty was not to consult his conscience, but to take the advice of his confessor; while the confessor himself was bound to follow the rules laid down by the casuistical experts, who delivered themselves of a kind of "counsel's opinion" on all knotty points of practical morality. But experts proverbially differ: what was to be done when they disagreed? Suppose, for instance, that some casuists held it wrong to dance on Sunday, while others held it perfectly lawful. In Liguori's time there were four ways of answering the question. Strict moralists--called rigorists, or "tutiorists"--maintained that the austerer opinion ought always to be followed; dancing on Sundays was certainly wrong, if any good authorities had declared it to be so. Probabiliorists maintained that the more general opinion ought to prevail, irrespectively of whether it was the stricter or the laxer; dancing on Sunday was perfectly lawful, if the majority of casuists approved it. Probabilists argued that any opinion might be followed, if it could show good authority on its side, even if there was still better authority against it; dancing on Sunday must be innocent, if it could show a fair sprinkling of eminent names in its favour. The fourth and last school--the "laxists"--carried this principle a step farther, and held that a practice must be unobjectionable, if it could prove that any one "grave Doctor" had defended it; even if dancing on Sunday had hitherto lain under the ban of the church, a single casuist could legitimate it by one stroke of his pen. Liguori's great achievement lay in steering a middle course between these various extremes. The gist of his system, which is known as "equi-probabilism," is that the more indulgent opinion may always be followed, whenever the authorities in its favour are as good, or nearly as good, as those on the other side. In this way he claimed that he had secured liberty in its rights without allowing it to degenerate into licence. However much they might personally disapprove, zealous priests could not forbid their parishioners to dance on Sunday, if the practice had won widespread toleration; on the other hand, they could not relax the usual discipline of the church on the strength of a few unguarded opinions of too indulgent casuists. Thus the Liguorian system surpassed all its predecessors in securing uniformity in the confessional on a basis of established usage, two advantages amply sufficient to ensure its speedy general adoption within the Church of Rome.

_Lives_ by A. M. Tannoja, a pupil of Liguori's (3 vols., Naples, 1798-1802); new ed., Turin, 1857; French trans., Paris, 1842; P. v. A. Giattini (Rome, 1815: Ger. trans., Vienna, 1835); F. W. Faber (4 vols., London, 1848-1849); M. A. Hugues (Münster, 1857); O. Gisler (Einsiedeln, 1887); K. Dilgskron (2 vols., Regensburg, 1887), perhaps the best; A. Capecelatro (2 vols., Rome, 1893); A. des Retours (Paris, 1903); A. C. Berthe (St Louis, 1906).

_Works_ (a) Collected editions. Italian: (Monza, 1819, 1828; Venice, 1830; Naples, 1840 ff.; Turin, 1887, ff.). French: (Tournai, 1855 ff., new ed., 1895 ff.) German: (Regensburg, 1842-1847). English: (22 vols., New York, 1887-1895). Editions of the _Theologia Moralis_ and other separate works are very numerous. (b) _Letters_: (2 vols., Monza, 1831; 3 vols., Rome, 1887 ff.). See also Meyrick, _Moral and Devotional Theology of the Church of Rome, according to the Teaching of S. Alfonso de Liguori_ (London, 1857), and art. CASUISTRY. (St. C.)

LIGURES BAEBIANI, in ancient geography, a settlement of Ligurians in Samnium, Italy. The towns of Taurasia and Cisauna in Samnium had been captured in 298 B.C. by the consul L. Cornelius Scipio Barbatus, and the territory of the former remained Roman state domain. In 180 B.C. 47,000 Ligurians from the neighbourhood of Luna (Ligures Apuani), with women and children, were transferred to this district, and two settlements were formed taking their names from the consuls of 181 B.C., the Ligures Baebiani and the Ligures Corneliani. The site of the former town lies 15 m. N. of Beneventum, on the road to Saepinum and Aesernia. In its ruins several inscriptions have been found, notably a large bronze tablet discovered in a public building in the Forum bearing the date A.D. 101, and relating to the alimentary institution founded by Trajan here (see VELEIA). A sum of money was lent to landed proprietors of the district (whose names and estates are specified in the inscription), and the interest which it produced formed the income of the institution, which, on the model of that of Veleia, would have served to support a little over one hundred children. The capital was 401,800 sesterces, and the annual interest probably at 5%, i.e. 20,090 sesterces (£4018 and £201 respectively). The site of the other settlement--that of the Ligures Corneliani--is unknown.

See T. Mommsen in _Corp. Inscr. Lat._ ix. (Berlin, 1883), 125 sqq. (T. As.)

LIGURIA, a modern territorial division of Italy, lying between the Ligurian Alps and the Apennines on the N., and the Mediterranean on the S. and extending from the frontier of France on the W. to the Gulf of Spezia on the E. Its northern limits touch Piedmont and Lombardy, while Emilia and Tuscany fringe its eastern borders, the dividing line following as a rule the summits of the mountains. Its area is 2037 sq. m. The railway from Pisa skirts the entire coast of the territory, throwing off lines to Parma from Sarzana and Spezia, to Milan and Turin from Genoa, and to Turin from Savona, and there is a line from Ventimiglia to Cuneo and Turin by the Col di Tenda. Liguria embraces the two provinces of Genoa and Porto Maurizio (Imperia), which once formed the republic of Genoa. Its sparsely-peopled mountains slope gently northward towards the Po, descending, however, abruptly into the sea at several points; the narrow coast district, famous under the name of the Riviera (q.v.), is divided at Genoa into the Riviera di Ponente towards France, and the Riviera di Levante towards the east. Its principal products are wheat, maize, wine, oranges, lemons, fruits, olives and potatoes, though the olive groves are being rapidly supplanted by flower-gardens, which grow flowers for export. Copper and iron pyrites are mined. The principal industries are iron-works, foundries, iron shipbuilding, engineering, and boiler works (Genoa, Spezia, Sampierdarena, Sestri Ponente, &c.), the production of cocoons, and the manufacture of cottons and woollens. Owing to the sheltered situation and the mildness of their climate, many of the coast towns are chosen by thousands of foreigners for winter residence, while the Italians frequent them in summer for sea-bathing. The inhabitants have always been adventurous seamen--Columbus and Amerigo Vespucci were Genoese,--and the coast has several good harbours, Genoa, Spezia and Savona being the best. In educational and general development, Liguria stands high among the regions of Italy. The populations of the respective provinces and their chief towns are, according to the census of 1901 (_popolazione residente_ or _legale_)--province of Genoa, pop. 931,156; number of communes 197; chief towns--Genoa (219,507), Spezia (66,263), Savona (38,648), Sampierdarena (34,084), Sestri Ponente (17,225). Province of Porto Maurizio, pop. 144,604, number of communes 106; chief towns--Porto Maurizio (7207), S. Remo (20,027), Ventimiglia (11,468), Oneglia (8252). Total for Liguria, 1,075,760.

The Ligurian coast became gradually subject to the Romans, and the road along it must have been correspondingly prolonged: up to the end of the Hannibalic war the regular starting-point for Spain by sea was Pisae, in 195 B.C. it was the harbour of Luna (Gulf of Spezia),[1] though Genua must have become Roman a little before this time, while, in 137 B.C., C. Hostilius Mancinus marched as far as Portus Herculis (Villafranca), and in 121 B.C. the province of Gallia Narbonensis was formed and the coast-road prolonged to the Pyrenees. In 14 B.C. Augustus restored the whole road from Placentia to Dertona (Via Postumia), and thence to Vada Sabatia (Via Aemilia²) and the River Varus (Var), so that it thenceforth took the name of Via Julia Augusta (see AEMILIA, VIA²). The other chief roads of Liguria were the portion of the Via Postumia from Dertona to Genua, a road from above Vada through Augusta Bagiennorum and Pollentia to Augusta Taurinorum, and another from Augusta Taurinorum to Hasta and Valentia. The names of the villages--Quarto, Quinto, &c.--on the south-east side and Pontedecimo on the north of Genoa allude to their distance along the Roman roads. The Roman Liguria, forming the ninth region of Augustus, was thus far more extensive than the modern, including the country on the north slopes of the Apennines and Maritime Alps between the Trebia and the Po, and extending a little beyond Albintimilium. On the west Augustus formed the provinces of the Alpes Maritimae and the Alpes Cottiae. Towns of importance were few, owing to the nature of the country. Dertona was the only colony, and Alba Pompeia, Augusta Bagiennorum, Pollentia, Hasta, Aquae Statiellae, and Genua may also be mentioned; but the Ligurians dwelt entirely in villages, and were organized as tribes. The mountainous character of Liguria made the spread of culture difficult; it remained a forest district, producing timber, cattle, ponies, mules, sheep, &c. Oil and wine had to be imported, and when the cultivation of the olive began is not known.

The arrangement made by Augustus lasted until the time of Diocletian, when the two Alpine provinces were abolished, and the watershed became the boundary between Italy and Gaul. At this time we find the name Liguria extended as far as Milan, while in the 6th century the old Liguria was separated from it, and under the Lombards formed the fifth Italian province under the name of Alpes Cottiae. In the middle ages the ancient Liguria north of the Apennines fell to Piedmont and Lombardy, while that to the south, with the coast strip, belonged to the republic of Genoa. (T. As.)

_Archaeology and Philology._--It is clear that in earlier times the Ligurians occupied a much more extensive area than the Augustan region; for instance Strabo (i. 2, 92; iv. 1, 7) gives earlier authorities for their possession of the land on which the Greek colony of Massalia (Marseilles) was founded; and Thucydides (vi. 2) speaks of a settlement of Ligurians in Spain who expelled the Sicani thence. Southward their domain extended as far as Pisa on the coast of Etruria and Arretium inland in the time of Polybius (ii. 6), and a somewhat vague reference in Lycophron (line 1351) to the Ligurians as enemies of the founders of Agylla (i.e. Caere) suggests that they once occupied even a larger tract to the south. Seneca (_Cons. ad Helv._ vii. 9), states that the population of Corsica was partly Ligurian. By combining traditions recorded by Dionysius (i. 22; xiv. 37) and others (e.g. Serv. _ad. Aen._ xi. 317) as having been held by Cato the Censor and by Philistus of Syracuse (385 B.C.) respectively, Professor Ridgeway (_Who were the Romans?_ London, 1908, p. 3) decides in favour of identifying the Ligurians with a tribe called the Aborigines who occupy a large place in the early traditions of Italy (see Dionysius i. cc. 10 ff.); and who may at all events be regarded with reasonable certainty as constituting an early pre-Roman and pre-Tuscan stratum in the population of Central Italy (see LATIUM). For a discussion of this question see VOLSCI. Ridgeway holds that the language of the Ligurians, as well as their antiquities, was identical with that of the early Latins, and with that of the Plebeians of Rome (as contrasted with that of the Patrician or Sabine element), see ROME: _History_ (_ad. init._). The archaeological side of this important question is difficult. Although great progress has been made with the study of the different strata of remains in prehistoric Italy and of those of Liguria itself (see for instance the excellent _Introduction à l'histoire romaine_ by Basile Modestov (Paris, 1907, p. 122 ff.) and W. Ridgeway's _Early Age of Greece_, p. 240 ff.) no general agreement has been reached among archaeologists as to the particular races who are to be identified as the authors of the early strata, earlier, that is, than that stratum which represents the Etruscans.

On the linguistic side some fairly certain conclusions have been reached. D'Arbois de Jubainville (_Les Premiers habitants de l'Europe_, ed. 2, Paris, 1880-1894) pointed out the great frequency of the suffix -_asco_- (and -_usco_-) both in ancient and in modern Ligurian districts, and as far north as _Caranusca_ near Metz, and also in the eastern Alps and in Spain. He pointed out also, what can scarcely be doubted, that the great mass of the Ligurian proper names (e.g. the streams _Vinelasca_, _Porcobera_, _Comberanea_; _mons Tuledo_; _Venascum_), have a definite Indo-European character. Farther Karl Müllenhof in vol. iii. of his _Deutsche Alterthumskunde_ (Berlin, 1898) made a careful collection of the proper names reserved in Latin inscriptions of the Ligurian districts, such as the _Tabula Genuatium_ (_C.I.L._ i. 99) of 117 B.C. A complete collection of all Ligurian place and personal names known has been made by S. Elizabeth Jackson, B.A., and the collection is to be combined with the inscriptional remains of the district in _The Pre-Italic Dialects_, edited by R. S. Conway (see _The Proceedings of the British Academy_). Following Kretschmer _Kuhn's Zeitschrift_ (xxxviii. 97), who discussed several inscriptions found near Ornavasso (Lago Maggiore) and concluded that they showed an Indo-European language, Conway, though holding that the inscriptions are more Celtic than Ligurian, pointed out strong evidence in the ancient place names of Liguria that the language spoken there in the period which preceded the Roman conquest was Indo-European, and belonged to a definite group, namely, languages which preserved the original _q_ as Latin did, and did not convert it into _p_ as did the Umbro-Safine tribes. The same is probably true of Venetia (see VENETI), and of an Indo-European language preserved on inscriptions found at Coligny and commonly referred to the Sequani (see _Comptes Rendus de l'Ac. d'Insc._, Paris, 1897, 703; E. B. Nicholson, _Sequanian_, London, 1898; Thurneysen, _Zeitschr. f. Kelt. Phil._, 1899, 523). Typically Ligurian names are _Quiamelius_, which contains the characteristic Ligurian word _melo_- "stone" as in _mons Blustiemelus_ (_C.I.L._ v. 7749), _Intimelium_ and the modern _Vintimiglia_. The tribal names _Soliceli_, _Stoniceli_, clearly contain the same element as Lat. _aequi-coli_ (dwellers on the plain), _sati-cola_, &c., namely _quel_-, cf. Lat. _in-quil-inus_, _colo_, Gr. [Greek: polein, tellesthai]. And it should be added that the Ligurian ethnica show the prevailing use of the two suffixes -_co_- and -_ati_-, which there is reason to refer to the pre-Roman stratum of population in Italy (see VOLSCI).

Besides the authorities already cited the student may be referred to C. Pauli, _Altitalische Studien_, vol. i., especially for the alphabet of the insc.; W. Ridgeway, _Who were the Romans?_ (followed by the abstract of a paper by the present writer) in _The Proceedings of the British Academy_, vol. iii. p. 42; and to W. H. Hall's, _The Romans on the Riviera and the Rhône_ (London, 1898); Issel's _La Liguria geologica e preistorica_ (Genoa, 1892). A further batch of Celto-Ligurian inscriptions from Giubiasco near Bellinzona (Canton Ticino) is published by G. Herbig, in the _Anzeiger f. Schweizer. Altertumskunde_, vii. (1905-1906), p. 187; and one of the same class by Elia Lattes, _Di un' Iscriz. ante-Romana trovata a Carcegna sul Lago d' Orta_ (_Atti d. r. Accad. d. Scienze di Torino_, xxxix., Feb. 1904). (R. S. C.)

FOOTNOTE:

[1] The dividing line between Liguria and Etruria was the lower course of the river Macra (Magra), so that, while the harbour of Luna was in the former, Luna itself was in the latter.

LI HUNG CHANG (1823-1901), Chinese statesman, was born on the 16th of February 1823 at Hofei, in Ngan-hui. From his earliest youth he showed marked ability, and when quite young he took his bachelor degree. In 1847 he became a Tsin-shi, or graduate of the highest order, and two years later was admitted into the imperial Hanlin college. Shortly after this the central provinces of the empire were invaded by the Taiping rebels, and in defence of his native district he raised a regiment of militia, with which he did such good service to the imperial cause that he attracted the attention of Tsêng Kuo-fan, the generalissimo in command. In 1859 he was transferred to the province of Fu-kien, where he was given the rank of taotai, or intendant of circuit. But Tsêng had not forgotten him, and at his request Li was recalled to take part against the rebels. He found his cause supported by the "Ever Victorious Army," which, after having been raised by an American named Ward, was finally plac