The Reformation of the Keys: Confession, Conscience, and Authority in Sixteenth-Century Germany

by Ronald K. Rittgers

The Catholic Church's claims to spiritual and temporal authority rest on Jesus' promise in the gospels to give Peter the keys to the kingdom of heaven. In the sixteenth century, leaders of the German Reformation sought a fundamental transformation of this "power of the keys" as part of their efforts to rid Church and society of alleged clerical abuses. Central to this transformation was a thoroughgoing reform of private confession.

Unlike...

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674011767
• ISBN13: 9780674011762
• Release Date: March 2004
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 330 Pages
• Weight: 1.35 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 6.6" x 9.5"