Dist. 19, Art. 2, 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/19/q/bon-sent-IV-d19-a2-q1
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### Article II. *When the keys are given.*

Next, with regard to the second article it is asked, *when* the keys are given. And concerning this, two things are asked. First it is asked, whether the keys are given in the priestly order. Second, whether it can happen that they be separated from that same order.

### Question I. *Whether the keys are given in the priestly order.*

Concerning the first it is shown that they are given in that order alone.

1. *First*, by authority. Ambrose, in his book *On Paradise*, speaking of the power of binding and loosing, says: "This right is permitted to priests alone."

2. *Likewise*, on that text: *I will give to you the keys*, the Gloss of Jerome: "All the Apostles have judiciary power, and the whole Church too has it in the bishops and presbyters"; but every bishop is a priest: therefore etc.

3. *Likewise*, it seems so by reason: for the power of the key was given to the Apostles, when the Lord said, in John chapter twenty: *Whose sins you shall forgive* etc.: therefore this power is signified to be given to those alone to whom these words are spoken; but these words are spoken only to priests: therefore etc.

4. *Likewise*, everyone having this power is a mediator, and everyone of this kind is appointed in the things that pertain to God, that he may offer gifts and sacrifices for sins: therefore this power pertains to him to whom it pertains to offer sacrifice. But this, in the new law and in the old, pertains to priests alone: therefore etc.

**On the contrary:**

1. Jerome: "Doorkeepers, having judgment between the good and the bad, receive the worthy and reject the unworthy"; but this is the office of the keys, as appeared in what precedes through the Gloss, on Matthew sixteen: therefore etc.

2. *Likewise*, it seems so by reason: for if it befits anyone to be given the keys, it befits him who holds the office of doorkeeper; but that order is far inferior to the priesthood, indeed the first among the orders: therefore then it seems that the power of the keys is given to it.

3. *Likewise*, the external things which are in the orders are signs of the internal and spiritual things, since "a Sacrament is the visible form of invisible grace": therefore in that order the spiritual key is given internally, in which the material key is given externally: therefore since this is the order of doorkeepers, it is plain etc.

4. *Likewise*, in every order there is some spiritual power, and that power is ordered under the priestly power by way of ministry in the lower orders; but we see, in the king's court and in the Roman court, that the keys are not given to princes and counselors, but to dependents and ministers: therefore since it is more fitting that this key be given in the conferral of the other orders than of the priesthood — since the office of the priest is to minister in the presence of the Lord and to offer to Him the most acceptable sacrifice — it seems etc.

Together with this it is asked, since a new use of binding and loosing is given in the episcopal dignity, since there too

pontifical power and authority are handed over, whether another key is handed over there. And if this were true, then there are not only two keys; which is against what has been predetermined.

### Conclusion

> To priests alone and in the priestly order is the power of the keys conferred.

**I respond:** It must be said, as the Saints say, that the very manner of handing over the orders also intimates this, namely that the power of the keys is conferred in the priestly order. — And the ground of this is divine institution. But we can see the fittingness of the institution, since the keeper of these keys holds the office of mediator and the office of reconciler. Now a mediator is between God and men; but a reconciler reduces them to the Church and reconciles them to the Church. To this end, however — that he may be a perfect and competent mediator between God and man — it is necessary that he have the power of offering gifts and sacrifices for sins, in which God is appeased. To this end — that he may be able to reduce them to the mystical body of Christ, whose head is Christ Himself, the true one; so that the power may be right and ordered — it is necessary that he have the *power* of confecting the most holy body of Christ. But this pertains to priests alone. And therefore the wondrous wisdom of God, ordering the ecclesiastical powers in a most ordered manner, has committed the power of binding and loosing to priests alone, and so the keys are given in the priestly order. — And since the episcopate does not bespeak a new order, but a certain eminence of an order, it must rightly be said that in it no new key is given, but that a power of this kind is extended and amplified; so that thus the final question may be plain. Now the power of jurisdiction is amplified for correcting, in sign of which the pastoral staff is handed over to him.

**To 1, 2, 3.** To that, then, which is objected concerning the doorkeepers, that they have judgment; it must be said that to have judgment and power for rejecting or admitting is twofold: either with respect to the Sacraments themselves and their efficacy, administering them indeed as is fitting; and this pertains to the keys of heaven, and these are the keys of which we are speaking. The other is a power of admitting and rejecting with respect to place: that is, to the places of the Sacraments, such as the church; and this pertains to the lowest order; but this is not called a key of heaven, but rather a certain power with respect to the material temple, and therefore it can rather be called the key of those keeping watch in the guard-posts of the sanctuary. And although in some way this power is spiritual, since it inheres by reason of the office and orders toward the spiritual; yet on this account he is not called a key-bearer of heaven nor a doorkeeper. — And through this the two following [arguments] about the keys and the doorkeeper are plain, since they signify *another* power, not that which has been aforesaid and of which we now treat.

**To 4.** To that which is objected, that this power belongs to the lowest persons in the courts of men; it must be said that the case is not similar: for this [civil power] properly bespeaks a power with respect to men entering the door, from which they acquire no excellence; but the power of the keys is a power with respect to those entering the Church and thereupon heaven; and therefore he upon whom full power has been conferred is set over all, as was blessed Peter. And since this power was conferred first upon the chief, it is plain that it is a matter not of lowliness but of the greatest nobility, and therefore it befits and is fitted to the most noble order.