"Power of the keys"

Power of "binding and loosing"—that is, of excluding from or admitting into Paradise—claimed by the Pope in his character of St. Peter's successor, grounded on Mathew, 16:19

["And I will give onto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind on the earth shall be bound in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose on the earth shall be loosed in heaven."]

The power or authority to administer the discipline of the Church, and to communicate or withhold its privileges.

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William Andrews' Bygone Punishments (1899) indicated that several centuries ago the locksmith's art was considered sacrosanct, citing an old English ordinance with draconian penalties, which read: "All breakers open of chests, or pickers of locks, coffers, or chests, etc. on shipboard, if under the value of one-and-twenty pence, they shall suffer forty days' imprisonment; but if above {that value} they must be hanged as aforesaid."