How did european christians understand liberty, and what role did authority play in their concept of liberty?

Liberty was a set of rights and privileges that are innate to people. Christians had an important role in this because they claimed that these rights come from God and that people are born with then as created by God. This meant that not having rights was against Christianity. This was common during the first great awakening. Authority came from god.

Hoover's individualism in cooperative area is the  free laissez-faire and unfettered competition among business owners and capitalists.
He argued that government intervention in economic affairs should be reduced to a minimum level.