INES DE CASTRO INFALLIBILITY. 



INES DE CASTRO. Pedro, son of Alphonso 

 IV., king of Portugal, after the death of his wife 

 Constanlia (1344), secretly married his mistress, Ines 

 de Castro, who was descended from the royal line of 

 Castile, from which Pedro was also descended on his 

 mother's side. As he steadily rejected all proposi- 

 tions for a new marriage, his secret was suspected, 

 and the envious rivals of the beautiful Ines, were 

 fearfnl that her brothers and family would gain a 

 complete ascendency over the future king. The old 

 king was easily blinded by the intrigues of his artful 

 counsellors, Diego Lopez Pacheco, Pedro Coelho, 

 and Alvarez Gonsalvez. They persuaded him that 

 this marriage would be prejudicial to the interests of 

 his young grandson Ferdinand (the son of Pedro by 

 his deceased wife.) Alphonso asked his son if he 

 was married to Ines. Pedro dared not confess the 

 truth to his father, much less would he comply with 

 the command of the king, to renounce his mistress 

 and unite himself to another. Alphonso again con- 

 sulted his favourites, and it was resolved to put the 

 unhappy Ines to death. The queen Beatrice, mother 

 of the Infant, obtained intelligence of this cruel de- 

 sign, and gave her son notice of it. But Pedro 

 neglected not only this information, but even the 

 warning of the archbishop of Braga, as a rumour 

 intended merely to terrify him. The first time that 

 Pedro left Ines, to be absent several days, on a hunt- 

 ing expedition, the king hastened to Coimbra, where 

 she was living in the convent of St Clara with her 

 children. The arrival of Alphonso filled the unhappy 

 lady with terror; but, suppressing her feelings, she 

 appeared before the king, threw herself with her 

 children at his feet, and begged for mercy with tears. 

 Alphonso, softened by this sight, had not the heart 

 to perpetrate the intended crime. But after he had 

 retired, his evil counsellors succeeded in obliterating 

 the impression winch had been made on him, ana 

 obtained from him permission to commit the murder 

 which had been resolved on. It was executed that 

 very hour; Ines expired under the daggers of her 

 enemies. She was buried in the convent where she 

 was murdered (1355). Pedro, frantic with grief and 

 rage, took arms against his father, but the queen and 

 the archbishop of Braga succeeded in reconciling the 

 father and son. Pedro obtained many privileges; IE 

 return for which, he promised, on oath, not to takt 

 vengeance on the murderers. Two years after, king 

 Alphonso died; the three assassins had already left 

 the kingdom, by his advice, and taken refuge in 

 Castile, where Peter the Cruel then reigned, whose 

 tyranny had driven some noble Castilians into Por- 

 tugal. Pedro agreed to exchange these fugitives for 

 the murderers of Ines. Having delivered them to 

 their master, he received, in return, the persons of 

 Pedro Coelho and Alvarez Gonsalvez; the third, 

 Pacheco, escaped to Arragon. The two were then 

 tortured in the presence of the king, in order to 

 make them disclose their accomplices; their hearts 

 were torn out, their bodies burnt, and their ashes 

 scattered to the winds (1360). Two years after, he 

 assembled the chief men of the kingdom, at Cataneda, 

 and solemnly declared on oath, that, after the death 

 of his wife Constantia, he had obtained the consent 

 of the pope to his union with Ines de Castro, and 

 that he had been married to her in the presence of 

 the archbishop of Guarda and of an officer of his 

 court, Stephen Lobato. He then went to Coimbra. 

 The archbishop and Lobato confirmed the assertions 

 of the king; and the papal document, to which the 

 Ving referred, was publicly exhibited. The king 

 caused the body of his beloved Ines to be disinterred, 

 and placed on a throne, adorned with the diadem 

 and royal robes, and required all the nobility of the 

 kingdom to approach and kiss the hem of her gar- 



ment, rendering her when dead that homage which 

 she had not received in her life. The body was then 

 carried in a funeral car to Alcobaga. The king, the 

 bishops, the nobles, and knights of the kingdom, fol- 

 lowed the carriage on foot; and the whole distance, 

 from Coimbra to Alcobaga, was lined on both sides by 

 many thousands of people, bearing burning torches. 

 In Alcobaga, a splendid monument of white marble 

 was erected, on which was placed her statue, with a 

 royal crown on her head. The history of the unhappy 

 Ines has furnished many poets, of different nations, 

 with materials for tragedies, Lamothe, count von 

 Soden, &c.; but the Portuguese muse has immortalized 

 her through the lips of Camoens, in whose celebrated 

 Lusiade, the history of her love is one of the finest 

 episodes. 



INFALLIBILITYjexemption from the possibility 

 of error. God, of course, is infallible, because the 

 idea of divinity excludes that of error; Christ was 

 infallible, and, according to the belief of the Greek 

 and Catholic church, and of most Protestant sects, 

 the apostles were also infallible, after the descent of 

 the Holy Ghost. Here, however, the Protestants 

 M d Catholics divide. The latter, founding their 

 creed on tradition (q. v.) as well as on the Bible, 

 maintain that the tradition, that is, the general doc- 

 trine and belief, handed down from age to age, and 

 taught by the great body of the pastors, is above 

 the possibility of error; consequently, also, the coun- 

 cils are infallible, because the councils, according 

 to a Catholic writer, " do not make truths or dog- 

 mas, as some Protestants maintain, but merely ex- 

 press the belief of the church on certain points in 

 question :" the truth pronounced, therefore, always 

 existed, but had not been previously declared by the 

 church. From several passages in the Bible, the 

 Catholic infers that the above-mentioned tradition 

 and the councils are under the continual guidance 

 and influence of the Holy Ghost : hence the formula 

 so often repeated by the council of Trent, the last 

 general council of the Catholic church " the holy 

 council lawfully assembled under the guidance of the 

 Holy Ghost." It is clear, that, if the councils are 

 infallible, it is of the utmost importance for the 

 Catholic to know what are lawful councils. Tin's 

 is a point which, as may be easily conceived, has 

 created great discussions in the Catholic church, 

 because the popes claimed the sole right to convoke 

 councils. (See Council) So far all Roman Catholics 

 agree respecting infallibility, namely, that Christ, the 

 apostles, the body of the pastors, the traditions of the 

 church, and the councils, are infallible; but they 

 disagree respecting the infallibility of the pope. The 

 ultramontane theologians maintain that the pope is 

 infallible, whenever he pronounces dogmatically on 

 a point of doctrine, to settle the faith of the whole 

 Catholic church. These theologians are therefore 

 called infallibilists. The theologians of the Gallican 

 church do not admit this infallibility. The assembly 

 of the French clergy, in 1682, laid down the maxim, 

 " that in questions of faith, the sovereign pontiff has 

 the chief part, and that his decrees concern the whole 

 church; but that his judgment is not irreformable, 

 until it be confirmed by the acquiescence of the 

 church." Bossnet, in his Defensio Dectarat. Cleri 

 Gallic., 2d part, 1. 12 seq. has treated this point at 

 length. He maintains, that the pope is by no means 

 infallible, and that a papal decision is not to be con- 

 sidered infallible until the church acquiesces in it, 

 which, he admits, may be done, in general, silently. 



In politics, the word infallibleis used in a different 

 sense. The position that any political person, or 

 | Ixxiy, is infallible, only means, that there is no 

 appeal from such person or body. When the Eng- 

 lish public law declares that the king can do no 



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