the key to heaven

[ursula]

I'm trying to figure out whether a seventeenth-century motto, "Crux Christi clavis coeli," is a quotation from someone else. Web-surfing suggests that it may be an adaptation from St. Augustine; can anyone confirm this? Did Augustine ever write that the cross of Christ is the key to Heaven, and if so, where did he do so?

Comments

[glasseye.livejournal.com]

It be a shorter version of this:

Matthew 16:19:
“I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”

[ex-greythist387.livejournal.com]

A quick search of Chadwyck-Healy's PLD (http://pld.chadwyck.com/) for clavis coeli turns up fifteen hits across thirteen texts, none by Augustine and none in visible proximity to the cross of Christ. However, clavis AND coeli AND crux in the works of Augustinus Hipponensis turns up some hits that might be likely, if only I cared enough to read through them. :) Apologies for redundancy if you've already tried this.

[jakemainstreet.livejournal.com]

The only useful thing I can tell you about Augustine is that he wrote a whole helluva lot, so it's possible. But the quote is nothing I've ever heard of him saying. But I do know that the cross was not really used as a Christian symbol until the middle ages. At least, it doesn't appear in early Christian iconography or apologetic writings. It's true that to be a martyr was a special honor, but it's not clear that actual or symbolic martyrdom was considered the key to heaven or that Christ's having sacrficed himself played any special role in Ancient Christian theology. On the contrary, I've heard that early Christians were actually embarrassed of Christ's having died in such a dishonorable way and didn't exactly like to advertise it. So the cross as being central to Christian identity/salvation is really a medieval development and not something an Ancient author was likely to have written about. Hope that helps.