Print from copper engraving titled „S. Liberius“.Artist/Maker Quirin Mark.From Quirin Mark, „Geschichte der Päpste mit ihren Abbildungen, von Petrus bis Pius VII“, volume 1, Wien, Anton Schmid, 1809.Quirin Mark was an Austriian engraver, born at Littau in Moravia on 20 January 1753, formed under Jacob polluters in Vienna, where he entered as a student in the Academy. He died in Vienna 1811. The most excellent of his students was Blasius Hofel. Notes: XXXVII.Pope Liberius (died 24 September 366) was Pope from 17 May 352 to his death in 366. According to the Catalogus Liberianus, he was consecrated on 22 May as the successor of Pope Julius I. He is not mentioned as a saint in the Roman Martyrology. His first recorded act was, after a synod had been held at Rome, to write to Emperor Constantius II, then in quarters at Arles (353–354), asking that a council might be called at Aquileia with reference to the affairs of Athanasius of Alexandria, but his messenger Vincentius of Capua was compelled by the emperor at a conciliabulum held in Arles to subscribe against his will to a condemnation of the orthodox patriarch of Alexandria. At the end of an exile of more than two years in Thrace, after which it seems he may have temporarily relented to the Arian cause, or been set up to appear to have relented – partially evidenced by three letters, quite possibly forgeries, ascribed to Liberius, the emperor recalled him, but, as the Roman See was officially occupied by Antipope Felix II, a year passed before Liberius was sent to Rome. It was the emperor's intention that Liberius should govern the Church jointly with Felix, but on the arrival of Liberius, Felix was expelled by the Roman people. Neither Liberius nor Felix took part in the Council of Rimini (359). After the death of the Emperor Constantius in 361, Liberius annulled the decrees of that assembly but, with the concurrence of bishops Athanasius and Hilary of Poitiers, retained the bishops who had signed and then withdrew their adherence. In 366, Liberius gave a favourable reception to a deputation of the Eastern episcopate, and admitted into his communion the more moderate of the old Arian party. He died on 24 September 366. Some historians have postulated that Liberius resigned the papacy in 365, in order to make sense of the reign of Antipope Felix II. Approx. image size 9, 2 x 7, 5/20, 1 x 13, 4 cm.

Condition: good.