THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
hood was avoided by ordaining monks as priests and appointing them as confessors; but since the thirteenth century, without annulling 7. The the prerogatives of the monks, the Keys in " power of the keys " has gradually the Greek been taken from the monastic orders Church, and entrusted to the priests; while, under Roman Catholic influence, penance has become a sacrament. The doctrines of the Greek Church in this respect, however, have remained more general than the Roman Catholic, and have not assumed so juristic a character.
IV. The Reformation and the Protestant Doctrine: The entire concept of the " power of the keys " was transformed by the Reformation, Luther especially representing a return to early beliefs. Holding that the " power of the keys " was not legalistic, but denoted simply the forgiveness or retention of sins, he emphasized its entirely spiritual character as contrasted with its secular usage. He taught, moreover, that it concerned 1. Luther the personal relation of the sinner to and Me- God, and that it opened or closed the lanchthon. path to sharing in the divine grace, and was not a mode of punishment. As a power conferred on man by God or Christ, it belonged to the Church, this being not the pope or the clergy, but the body of the faithful who have the Holy Spirit. While, however, in theory every Christian has this power and can exercise it in the name of the Church, practically only one commissioned by the Church may do so, again in the name of the Church, and as obeying God and acting in his stead. The spiritual Church thus becomes a mediator between the individual and God. The key of binding proclaims the unrepentant sinner doomed to eternal death; but if he repents, the key of loosing pronounces him free from sin and renews the promise of everlasting life (Von den Schliisseln, Erlangen edition, xxxi. 178). The " power of the keys " is exercised by the Church first in preaching, the preaching of the law binding and the preaching of the Gospel loosing; in public and private absolution; and in excommunication, or prohibition to receive the Sacrament or to share in the other blessings of the Church until repentance and amendment, although the person so excommunicated was not to be prevented from hearing sermons. All forgiveness was conditioned by faith, but excommunication was to be pronounced only on gross and open sinners, who were to permit this judgment of God and the Church to work in them to repentance. Melanchthon agreed with Luther in his doctrine of the " power of the keys," and maintained the right of the Church to appoint officials to exercise it. He insisted, moreover, on confession and absolution before receiving the Sacrament, and, influenced by Roman Catholicism, he distinguished the " power of the keys," as a potestas jurisdictionis, from the -potestas ordinis. He likewise held that the " power of the keys " belonged, at least in practise, to the clergy, while the Reformed concept of the Church regarded her as the essential possessor of this power.
The divergent view of the " power of the keys " held by the Reformed, and especially by Calvin,
was intimately connected with their distinction between the invisible Church of the predestined and the visible Church which was to be
2. The organized and ruled according to the Calvinistic word of God; additional elements be-
Theory. ing the line drawn between the divine and the created factors of salvation and a concept by which forgiveness of sins presupposed only the true renewal by the Holy Ghost in regeneration. Accordingly, Calvin, distinguishing between Matt. xvi. and John xx. on the one hand and Matt. xviii. on the other, postulated a double " power of the keys" {Institutes, IV., xi. 1). Proceeding from the theory of individual need and individual pastoral care, he approximates the Lutheran idea of the consolation of private absolution (III., iv. 14, IV., i. 22) although this never gains the importance of an actual absolution. From this " power of the keys," which rests in the " ministry of the word " (cf. III., iv. 14, IV., vi. 4), must be distinguished the " spiritual jurisdiction and discipline " of the Church, which concerns the punishment meted out by the Church as a theocratic and secular institution. It is clear that here there is no question of a direct relation to God. Despite the difficulty of the reconciliation of Calvin's view with the promises of Christ regarding the " power of the keys," his double interpretation was retained in the Reformed confessions, as in the Helvetic Confession, 14, and the Heidelberg Catechism, 83. The Council of Trent, on the other hand, in its opposition to the Reformation, while abandoning the old theory of the two keys, retained the substance of the ancient dogma (session xxiii. 1); and postulated still more explicitly that the " power of the keys " was a prerogative granted by Christ to Peter and his successors.
In the Evangelical churches, and especially the Lutheran, the exercise of the " power of the keys " became more and more restricted to the clergy, who used it, on the one hand, in private absolution after a general confession, and, on the other, as a punishment in the form of excommunication, though, as a matter of fact, the latter was restricted by the consistories to carnal sins. Gradually, however, protests were raised against the " power of the keys," in part through a more or less mistaken idea regarding the Reformatory concept of the consolation and the sacramental signification of the forgiveness of sins. The pioneer of this tendency was Theophilus Grossgebauer, who required only confession to God for secret sins, but held public confession and reconciliation to be
3. Lu- necessary for open sins, in which alone theran he believed the power to bind and Attacks loose to be effective, judgment being on the exercised by a body of elders chosen
Doctrine, by the congregations concerned. Spener sought to transform private confession and absolution into a declaration before the pastor for counsel and spiritual investigation; but insisted that only the penitent might be absolved, doubtful cases being referred to a body of elders for judgment. While he held that the " power of the keys " belonged to the entire Church or brotherhood, and had wrongly become restricted to the clergy and