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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Fortuitously, I am currently re-reading the Divine Comedy, and have just passed the bit about Peter's keys in Purgatorio. The keys here are two in number. One is made of gold and the other of silver. The metaphor is the Church's capacity for forgiveness of sins: The gold key represents the divine authority of the Church to do the forgiving (and is hence more valuable). The silver key represents the intelligence and judgement needed by the Church to ascertain whether repentance is genuine and whether or not to actually effect forgiveness. This key is said to be less valuable, but more difficult to turn (or something along those lines - I don't have my copy to hand right now!) I don't know what three keys might mean, unless you add a black one to the two mentioned by Dante. Best wishes. Rob Howe. http://www.rob-rah.com >From: Marjorie Greene <[log in to unmask]> >Reply-To: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture > <[log in to unmask]> >To: [log in to unmask] >Subject: [M-R] Peter's (3) keys >Date: Tue, 28 Jan 2003 18:43:02 -0800 > >medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture > >Dear List, > >Again Isabel Moreira's book has provoked a question. >She refers to "Peter's three keys." I realize that the >Gospel refers to the "keys" (plural) but never ran >across a specific number before this. The handing over >of the keys is depicted in the Sistine Chapel >http://www.christusrex.org/www1/sistine/K.jpg >and the keys are two in number, one of gold, the >other, black, representing, I guess, Heaven and Hell. >All other depictions of Peter I can conjure up show >him with one, despite the Gospel statement. Whence the >number three? >Thanks, >MG > >__________________________________________________ >Do you Yahoo!? >Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. >http://mailplus.yahoo.com > >********************************************************************** >To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME >to: [log in to unmask] >To send a message to the list, address it to: >[log in to unmask] >To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion >to: [log in to unmask] >In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: >[log in to unmask] >For further information, visit our web site: >http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html _________________________________________________________________ Use MSN Messenger to send music and pics to your friends http://messenger.msn.co.uk ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html