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Objection 1: It would seem that not only priests have the keys.
For Isidore says (Etym. vii, 12) that the "doorkeepers have to
tell the good from the bad, so as to admit the good and keep out the
bad." Now this is the definition of the keys, as appears from what
has been said (Question 17, Article 2). Therefore not only
priests but even doorkeepers have the keys.
Objection 2: Further, the keys are conferred on priests when by
being anointed they receive power from God. But kings of Christian
peoples also receive power from God and are consecrated by being
anointed. Therefore not only priests have the keys.
Objection 3: Further, the priesthood is an order belonging to an
individual person. But sometimes a number of people together seem to
have the key, because certain Chapters can pass a sentence of
excommunication, which pertains to the power of the keys. Therefore
not only priests have the key.
Objection 4: Further, a woman is not capable of receiving the
priesthood, since she is not competent to teach, according to the
Apostle (1 Cor. 14:34). But some women (abbesses, for
instance, who exercise a spiritual power over their subjects), seem
to have the keys. Therefore not only priests have the keys.
On the contrary, Ambrose says (De Poenit. i): "This right,"
viz. of binding and loosing, "is granted to priests alone."
Further, by receiving the power of the keys, a man is set up between
the people and God. But this belongs to the priest alone, who is
"ordained . . . in the things that appertain to God, that he may
offer up gifts and sacrifices for sins" (Heb. 5:1). Therefore
only priests have the keys.
I answer that, There are two kinds of key. one reaches to heaven
itself directly, by remitting sin and thus removing the obstacles to
the entrance into heaven; and this is called the key of "order."
Priests alone have this key, because they alone are ordained for the
people in the things which appertain to God directly. The other key
reaches to heaven, not directly but through the medium of the Church
Militant. By this key a man goes to heaven, since, by its means, a
man is shut out from or admitted to the fellowship of the Church
Militant, by excommunication or absolution. This is called the key
of "jurisdiction" in the external court, wherefore even those who are
not priests can have this key, e.g. archdeacons, bishops elect, and
others who can excommunicate. But it is not properly called a key of
heaven, but a disposition thereto.
Reply to Objection 1: The doorkeepers have the key for taking care
of those things which are contained in a material temple, and they have
to judge whether a person should be excluded from or admitted to that
temple; which judgment they pronounce, not by their own authority,
but in pursuance to the priest's judgment, so that they appear to be
the administrators of the priestly power.
Reply to Objection 2: Kings have no power in spiritual matters, so
that they do not receive the key of the heavenly kingdom. Their power
is confined to temporal matters, and this too can only come to them
from God, as appears from Rm. 13:1. Nor are they consecrated
by the unction of a sacred order: their anointing is merely a sign that
the excellence of their power comes down to them from Christ, and
that, under Christ, they reign over the Christian people.
Reply to Objection 3: Just as in civil matters the whole power is
sometimes vested in a judge, as in a kingdom, whereas sometimes it is
vested in many exercising various offices but acting together with equal
rights (Ethic. viii, 10,11), so too, spiritual jurisdiction
may be exercised both by one alone, e.g. a bishop, and by many
together, e.g. by a Chapter, and thus they have the key of
jurisdiction, but they have not all together the key of order.
Reply to Objection 4: According to the Apostle (1 Tim.
2:11; Titus 2:5), woman is in a state of subjection:
wherefore she can have no spiritual jurisdiction, since the
Philosopher also says (Ethic. viii) that it is a corruption of
public life when the government comes into the hands of a woman.
Consequently a woman has neither the key of order nor the key of
jurisdiction. Nevertheless a certain use of the keys is allowed to
women, such as the right to correct other women who are under them, on
account of the danger that might threaten if men were to dwell under the
same roof.
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