Power of the Keys

Power of the Keys

Controlling authority	Catechism of the Catholic Church, paragraphs 981–987
Status	Catholic doctrine with sacramental and canonical exercises entrusted to ordained ministry

Power of the Keys is Christ's authority entrusted to the Church to bind and loose, exercised preeminently in forgiving sins through Baptism and Penance and also expressed in the Church's ordered pastoral governance under apostolic authority.

Authority level: Authoritative doctrine

Overview

The Power of the Keys, also known as the Office of the Keys, is a responsibility given to St. Peter to usher in the Kingdom of God on the Day of Pentecost, and a responsibility given to the other apostles by Jesus, according to Matthew 16:19 and Matthew 18:18. It is understood as a responsibility to admit or exclude from church membership (excommunicate), to set church policy and teachings (dogma), to render binding interpretations of Sacred Scripture (ancient rabbis were known to make binding interpretations of the Mosaic law), and to bind and loose sins. The verb 'to loose' (or to free) is used this way in John 20:23, Revelation 1:5 and by the Early Church Fathers.

In Christianity, "the keys are an office and power given by Christ to the Church for binding and loosing sins." It is a power that Roman Catholics believe to have been conferred first on St. Peter then afterwards on his successors in the office of the Roman Catholic Papacy. There is a description of the conferral of the Power of the Keys on St. Peter (originally named Simon) in Matthew 16:13:

13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" 14 And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." 15 He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" 16 Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." 17 And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. 18 And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." – Matthew 16:13–19

In Matthew chapter 18, 18 through 20, we see Jesus speaking to the disciples, not an individual specifically. This points to Jesus continuing to instruct the disciples in chapter 16, and perhaps not Peter individually after blessing Peter for having confessed who Jesus was by God's allowance;

18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. 19 Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. 20 For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.” – Matthew 18:18–20

This point of view is furthered ( the collective authority / power of the keys ) in the first Council of Jerusalem.

Roman Catholic dogma states that in Matthew 16, Jesus was paraphrasing a passage from Isaiah well known among the Jews (Is 22:15-25) in which Hezekiah, the King of Israel, had a general cabinet of ministers and his chief chamberlain, the Prime Minister Shebna was proved unworthy of his post and was thrown out. To fill his office, King Hezekiah names Eliakim son of Hilkiah as the new prime minister:

15 Thus says the Lord God of hosts, “Come, go to this steward, to Shebna, who is over the household, and say to him: 16 What have you to do here, and whom have you here, that you have cut out here a tomb for yourself, you who cut out a tomb on the height and carve a dwelling for yourself in the rock? 17 Behold, the Lord will hurl you away violently, O you strong man. He will seize firm hold on you 18 and whirl you around and around, and throw you like a ball into a wide land. There you shall die, and there shall be your glorious chariots, you shame of your master's house. 19 I will thrust you from your office, and you will be pulled down from your station. 20 In that day I will call my servant Eliakim the son of Hilkiah, 21 and I will clothe him with your robe, and will bind your sash on him, and will commit your authority to his hand. And he shall be a father to the inhabitants of Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. 22 And I will place on his shoulder the key of the house of David. He shall open, and none shall shut; and he shall shut, and none shall open. 23 And I will fasten him like a peg in a secure place, and he will become a throne of honor to his father's house. – Isaiah 22:15–23

In the Bible, the term keys has been used as a symbol of teaching authority (Lk 11:52). According to Roman Catholics, Jesus, the son of David and hence the King of the new Davidic kingdom, the Church, appoints St. Peter as the Church's primary teacher, an office that will continue to have successors much like Eliakim's position in the Old Testament Davidic kingdom. With these keys, like Eliakim, St. Peter the first Bishop of Rome and his successors are entrusted with Christ's own teaching authority over the new House of David, the Church here on earth (Rev. 1:18, 3:7). Through this office of the Papacy and the Magisterium, Roman The Kingdom of Heaven governs the Church on earth to lead it to all truth in matters of faith and morals (1 Tim 3:15, Mt 28:20, Jn 16:13). The Vatican's own claims to the Keys as a heraldic statement are limited to the 14th century.

Many Christians point out that Jesus uses much the same language in John 20:23 and therefore conferred some or all of the same powers on all the Apostles. On this basis, Eastern Orthodox believe that the power of the keys is conferred on all bishops. Similarly, Martin Luther and other reformers spoke of the "office of the Keys" as the power of church leaders to admit or exclude from church membership. In the Lutheran Churches, the "Office of the Keys is the special authority which Christ has given to His Church on earth: to forgive the sins of the penitent sinners, but to retain the sins of the impenitent as long as they do not repent." Lutheran doctrine cites John 20:22–23 as the basis for the sacrament of Confession and Absolution.

The Methodist tradition holds that the office of the keys is exercised when the Church baptizes an individual and pronounces him/her saved. The office of the keys is furthermore exercised in the Church "binding and loosing", being able to excommunicate individuals from the sacraments as "ordinarily, no one is saved outside the visible church".

Christ entrusts binding and loosing

The image comes especially from Christ's promise of the keys of the kingdom to Peter and his commission to bind and loose, together with the risen Lord's gift to the apostles to forgive and retain sins. Keys signify stewardship under the king, not ownership of the kingdom. The Catechism teaches that Christ willed the Church to continue his work of healing and salvation by the power of the Holy Spirit. The authority is therefore received, ecclesial, and ministerial from its beginning.

In Baptism the Church opens the passage from slavery to sin into the freedom of God's children. After Baptism, the power to forgive is ordinarily exercised sacramentally by bishops and priests in Penance. The priest does not merely announce that a penitent feels forgiven, nor does he forgive by private holiness; acting in Christ's name, he gives sacramental absolution within the authority and faculties supplied by the Church. Christ remains the source and principal agent of reconciliation.

Sacramental absolution and broader governance

Binding and loosing has a broader ecclesial range than the formula of absolution. The Church teaches, sanctifies, admits and reconciles, imposes or remits certain canonical penalties, and orders communion through legitimate authority. These acts are related by Christ's commission but are not interchangeable. A confessor's faculty to absolve sins does not by itself confer power to legislate, dispense from every law, or remove every censure. Some censures are reserved, and the Code specifies who can remit them and under what circumstances.

Likewise, a canonical decision in the external forum does not disclose or replace what occurs under the sacramental seal. The internal sacramental forum protects the penitent absolutely; no superior can command use of confessional knowledge in governance. Faculties, jurisdiction, delegation, and reservation express ecclesial order around Christ's gift rather than competition with divine mercy. In danger of death, the Church's law extends absolving power broadly so that pastoral discipline serves salvation, while the ordinary need for proper faculties remains real outside that circumstance.

Authority governed by truth and mercy

The keys do not license coercive control of conscience. A confessor judges the sacramental disposition manifested, safeguards the seal, gives suitable counsel and penance, and refuses or delays absolution only under the Church's law rather than personal domination. The penitent supplies contrition, confession, and satisfaction under grace; the minister supplies absolution. Both are ordered to reconciliation with God and the Church. Abuse of office, solicitation, manipulation, or disclosure contradicts the very ministry the keys signify and is gravely punished.

Nor is the doctrine a claim that persons outside visible canonical communion are simply beyond God's action. It states positively that Christ established a visible ministry of forgiveness and gave the Church responsibility to exercise it. Catholics should approach Penance with confidence rather than treating the keys as bureaucratic rationing of mercy. At the same time, mercy is not the denial of sin or justice. Binding and loosing serve the truth that grace restores freedom, repairs communion, and calls the reconciled person to conversion of life.

Boundary with nearby terms

The power of the keys is the underlying ecclesial gift; imperfect contrition concerns the penitent's disposition, while a canon penitentiary holds a defined faculty concerning certain undeclared censures in the sacramental forum. See also Attrition and Imperfect Contrition and Canon Penitentiary.

See also

• Keys of the kingdom
• Keys of Heaven

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

The expression "Power of the Keys" is derived from Christ's words to St. Peter (in Matthew 16:19). The promise there made finds its explanation in Isaias 22, in which "the key of the house of David" is conferred upon Eliacim, the son of Helcias, as the symbol of plenary authority in the Kingdom of Juda. Christ by employing this expression clearly designed to signify his intention to confer on St. Peter the supreme authority over His Church. For a consideration of the text in its dogmatic bearing, see POPE; PRIMACY. In the present article our sole purpose is to give a brief historical account of the meaning attached to the expression by ecclesiastical writers.

I. The Fathers

(1) In the Fathers the references to the promise of Matthew 16:19, are of frequent occurrence. Almost invariably the words of Christ are cited in proof of the Church's power to forgive sins. The application is a natural one, for the promise of the keys is immediately followed by the words: "Whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth", etc. Moreover, the power to confer or to withhold forgiveness might well be viewed as the opening and shutting of the gates of heaven. This interpretation, however, restricts the sense somewhat too narrowly; for the remission of sins is but one of the various ways in which ecclesiastical authority is exercised. We have examples of this use of the term is such passages as August., "De Doctrina Christi", xvii, xviii: "Quid liberatius et misericordius facere potuit...nisi ut omnia donaret conversis...Has igitur claves dedit Ecclesiae suae ut quae solveret in terra soluta essent in coelo" (How could He [Christ] have shewn greater liberality and greater mercy...than by granting full forgiveness to those who should turn from their sins...He gave these keys to His Church, therefore, that whatever it should remit on earth should be remitted also in heaven) (P.L., XXIV, 25; cf. Hilary, "In Matt.", xvi, P.L., IX, 1010).

It is comparatively seldom that the Fathers, when speaking of the power of the keys, make any reference to the supremacy of St. Peter. When they deal with that question, they ordinarily appeal not to the gift of the keys but to his office as the rock on which the Church is founded. In their references to the potestas clavium, they are usually intent on vindicating against the Montanist and Novatian heretics the power inherent in the Church to forgive. Thus St. Augustine in several passages declares that the authority to bind and loose was not a purely personal gift to St. Peter, but was conferred upon him as representing the Church. The whole Church, he urges, exercises the power of forgiving sins. This could not be had the gift been a personal one (tract. 1 in Joan., n. 12, P.L., XXXV, 1763; Serm. ccxcv, in P.L., XXXVIII, 1349). From these passages certain Protestant controversialists have drawn the curious conclusion that the power to forgive sins belongs not to the priesthood but to the collective body of Christians (see Cheetham in "Dict. Christ. Antiq.", s.v.). There is, of course, no suggestion of this meaning. St. Augustine merely signifies that the power to absolve was to be imparted through St. Peter to members of the Church's hierarchy throughout the world.

Some few of the Fathers, however, are careful to note that the bestowal of this power upon St. Peter alone, apart from the other Apostles, denoted his primacy among the twelve (Optatus, "De Schism. Don.", vii, 3, in P.L., XI, 1087). Origen dilates at length on this point, but teaches erroneously that the power conferred upon the Twelve in Matthew 18:18, could only be exercised within certain restrictions of place, while that conferred upon St. Peter in Matthew 16:18, was of universal extent (Comm. in Matt., P.G., XIII, 1179).

(2) Occasionally, though infrequently, Christ's promise is not restricted to signify the power to forgive sins, but is taken in the fuller meaning of the gift of authority over the Church. Thus St. Gregory in his letter to the Emperor Maurice, after quoting Christ's words in Matthew 16:18-19, writes: "Behold he [Peter] received the keys of the kingdom of heaven, the power of binding and loosing is committed to him, the care of the whole Church and its government is given to him [cura ei totius Ecclesiae et principatus committitur (Epist., lib. V, ep. xx, in P.L., LXXVII, 745)]. St. Maximus in a sermon on the feast of Saints Peter and Paul (P.L., LVII, 403) says that to St. Peter was given the key of power (clavis potentioe), to St. Paul the key of knowledge (clavis scientioe). The idea of a key of knowledge is clearly derived from Christ's words to the Pharisees, Luke 11:52: "You have taken away the key of knowledge." This distinction of the clavis potentioe and clavis scientioe recurs frequently in the medieval writers, though without reference to St. Paul.

II. The Scholastics

By the Scholastic theologians the precise significance of the term was closely analysed.

(1) The view which is now universally accepted is exposed at length by Suárez (De Poenit., disp. xvi). According to him, the phrase as employed by Christ in His promise to St. Peter denotes the gift of ecclesiastical authority in its widest scope. This authority was to be in a sense peculiar to St. Peter and his successors in the chief pastorate; for they alone were to possess it in its fullness. But it was to be exercised in due measure by the other members of the Divinely instituted hierarchy according to their several degrees. Thus understood, the potestas clavium includes

• the power of order, namely power exercised in regard to sacrifice and sacrament,

• the power of jurisdiction, and

• the power to define in questions of faith and morals.

The various powers thus conferred upon the Church were held to belong either to the clavis potentioe or to the clavis scientioe, the latter of these two being understood to signify the power to teach, while the other departments of authority pertained to the clavis potentioe. The distinction is, however, a theological refinement, and is not involved in the expression itself. As Suarez urges, Christ, when using the plural form, did not intend to indicate that the gift was twofold.

(2) The meaning attached to the term by the older Scholastics was, however, different from this. They followed the patristic tradition, and confined its significance to the judicial authority exercised in the Sacrament of Penance. The power of the keys, St. Thomas tells us (Summa Theologica Supp:17:2, ad 1um), is a necessary consequence of the sacerdotal character. It is, in fact, identical in essence with the power to consecrate and to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. The one sacerdotal gift is applied to different ends in the different sacraments. Such, too, appears to be the teaching of Pope John XXII in a well-known passage dealing with this subject (Extravag., tit. xiv, De verborum signif., c. v, Quia quorundam). The definition, "Clavis est specialis potestas ligandi et solvendi qua judex ecclesiasticus dignos recipere et indignos excludere debet a regno" (The keys are a special power of binding and loosing by which the ecclesiastical judge should receive the worthy [into the kingdom of heaven] and exclude the unworthy therefrom), generally accepted in the Scholastic period (Pet. Lomb., "Sent.", IV, dist. xviii; John XXII, loc. cit.; St. Thomas, loc. cit.), might seem indeed to include jurisdiction in the external as well as in the internal forum. But in point of fact it was not so understood. The distinction between the clavis potentioe and the clavis scientioe was employed here. By the clavis scientioe was understood the priestly authority to interrogate the penitent and thus obtain cognizance of the facts of the case; by the clavis potentioe, the authority to grant or refuse absolution.

The view just exposed is inadmissible as an interpretation of Christ's words. For it is plain that He desired to confer by them some special prerogative on Peter, while, according to this interpretation, the potestas clavium is common to all priests.

(3) Hence there were not wanting theologians who narrowly restricted the scope of the gift, and asserted that it denoted the special prerogatives appertaining to St. Peter and his successors, and these alone. Thus Cardinal Cajetan (Opusc., I, tract. iii, De Rom. Pont., c. v) held that while the power of binding and loosing belonged to all priests, the power of the keys — authority to open and shut — was proper to the supreme pontiff; and that this expression signified his authority to rule the Church, to define dogma, to legislate, and to dispense from laws. A similar opinion would seem to have been held by the Franciscans whose views are rejected by John XXII (loc. cit.). They contended that the popes held a clavis scientioe and a clavis potentioe; and that, though in the case of the clavis potentioe a decision arrived at might be reversed be a subsequent act, no reversal was possible where the clavis scientioe had been employed.

(4) Macedo in his treatise "De Clavibus Petri" (Rome, 1660), attributes to certain theologians and canonists the opinion that the keys denote the supreme authority in the civil and ecclesiastical spheres, and that Christ conferred upon the pope a direct supremacy over both orders. We have, however, been unable to verify this statement. Indeed the writers who attributed to the pope an indirect authority only, in regard to civil governments, found an argument for their views in this very passage. They pointed out that it was the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and not of the kingdoms of this earth, which Christ bestowed upon His vicar.

MACEDO, De Clavibus Petri (Rome, 1660); SUAREZ, De Poenitentia, disp. xvii; ST. THOMAS, Summa Theol., Suppl., Q. xvii; the Scholastic commentators on the Lib. Sent. in lib. IV, dist. xviii; A LAPIDE, In Matt., xvi, 18.