Dist. 18, Part 1, Art. 1, Q. 1
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/4/d/18/q/bon-sent-IV-d18-p1-a1-q1
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### Article I. *On the keys in general.*
### Question I. *Whether the keys of the Church have been given.*

Concerning the first, that the keys of the Church have been given is shown:

1. By that which is found in Matthew, the sixteenth chapter: *To you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven.*

2. Likewise, this same thing is proved by that which is said in John, the twentieth chapter: *Whose sins you remit, they are remitted to them* etc.: therefore it was in the power of the Apostles to lead [men] to justice, therefore to life; but everyone who can admit, or exclude from, the kingdom has the key of the kingdom: therefore the keys were given to the Apostles only insofar as they were prelates of the Church: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, it seems so by *reason*: because no one can enter the kingdom of heaven except through the Church, and this was signified where it is said in Genesis, the twenty-eighth chapter: *There is nothing here but the house of God and the gate of heaven*; but it is certain that for right order it was necessary that prelates be instituted in the Church; but no one is sufficiently set over the gate except him who has its key: therefore it seems that the Lord granted the keys to them.

4. Likewise, it is fitting for an earthly king to commit the key of the doorway or gate to his servants, who minister in his court; but an earthly king is not more liberal than the eternal king, rather far less so: therefore it seems that he committed the keys to some servants or men.

To the opposite it is argued thus: 1. There is no necessity of keys where the doorway is always open and free of obstruction; but the doorway of heaven and of the Church is always open: therefore etc. The minor is proved thus: the doorway of paradise is Christ the Lord, who says in John, the tenth chapter: *I am the door*; but it is always open, because in John, the sixth chapter, he himself says: *Him who comes to me I will not cast out*; and in the Apocalypse, the fourth chapter: *I saw, and behold, in heaven a door opened*: therefore etc.

2. Likewise, a key is granted only to him who can shut and open; but this is Christ alone, Isaiah, the twenty-second chapter: *I will give the key of the house of David upon his shoulder, and he shall shut, and there shall be none who opens* etc.: therefore it belongs to Christ alone to open and to shut: therefore etc.

3. Likewise, he alone bears the key who can remove the obstacle; but the obstacle of the kingdom of heaven Christ alone was able to remove: therefore etc. The proof of the minor. Upon that text of Isaiah, the twenty-second chapter: *I will give the key of the house of David*; the Gloss: "In his passion he opened what before he could not": but this was Christ's alone: therefore etc.

4. Likewise, it is something greater to have the keys of paradise than to have the keys of death and of hell; but Christ reserved the key of death and of hell to himself alone and did not give it to the Church: therefore [he reserved] the key of the kingdom much more strongly.

> **Conclusion.** The key of ministry has been given to the Church against the debt of forgiven sin, which descends from the key of authority by means of the key of excellence.

**I respond:** It must be said that the name "key" has been transferred to spiritual things from corporeal things themselves. Now in these corporeal things a key is an instrument for removing some obstacle. Since therefore in spiritual things we find an obstacle to entering into the heavenly kingdom, it is necessary to remove it. Therefore we transfer [the term] to spiritual things under the name "key," calling that power a key by which the obstacle is removed, or by which [one] is excluded or included.

According to this, then, it is to be noted that, since there is a threefold obstacle to entering into the kingdom, and a threefold power removing it, there is a threefold spiritual key, differing according to grade and dignity. Now the obstacle to entering heaven is the debt of some sin; and this is threefold: the first, of mortal sin committed, and this is the debt of eternal punishment. But this obstacle God alone removes, because it is removed through the deletion of guilt; and therefore the power removing this is the divine power, which by some is called the key of authority. — The second obstacle is the debt of contracted sin, and that is the debt of paying the price; and this could be paid by him who was able to make satisfaction; but such was Christ alone; and therefore this power removing that obstacle belongs to Christ alone, and some call it the key of excellence. — The third obstacle is the debt of forgiven sin, because, after guilt has been forgiven a man, he is still bound to temporal penalty, and this can be removed through him who can assess the penalty of sin; and such is a minister of Christ, not Christ only, and this power is communicated to men, and this power is called the key of ministry.

Since therefore there is a threefold power according to the threefold obstacle, there is a threefold key: the first, namely, of authority, from which [it is]; the second, namely, of excellence, and this is in Christ alone; and the third is the key of ministry, which descends from the key of authority, by means of the key of excellence; and of this it was said to Peter: *To you I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven*, Matthew, the sixteenth chapter. — And concerning this proceed the authorities and reasons for the first part; but the reasons to the opposite proceed concerning the other keys.

1. To that, therefore, which is objected first, that the doorway alone is always open; it must be said that this is true of itself; but nevertheless man shuts it to himself through the debt of sin which he incurs, from which man must be freed through one of the keys.

2. 3. To that which is objected, that Christ alone can shut; it must be said that that is understood of the key of *excellence*, by which he shut limbo for the saints, lest they descend there, and opened paradise; and of this opening it is said in the paschal prayer: "O God, who, death being conquered, have opened for us the entrance of eternity": of this the text and the Gloss are understood; and thus the following objection is clear.

4. To that which is objected concerning the keys of hell, it can be answered according to some that these are also keys of hell, but are nevertheless named from the worthier, because, while they open heaven, they shut hell; but they are principally for opening heaven. — It can be said otherwise that Christ has the keys of hell insofar as he is God, because it is he who can *destroy soul and body in hell*, and who can free [one] and shut [him] in there; whence this belongs to him according to the key of authority, which is in the removing of guilt. And therefore he says more by the key of hell than by the key of the kingdom; just as it is more to free [one] from guilt and eternal death than to free [him] from some temporal penalty by leading [him] into glory. Therefore that [objection] is invalid.