ng list of "Clergy" who trace their spiritual pedigree to Apostolic
days.

{135}

_Ordination Safeguards._

"Seeing then," run the words of the Ordination Service, "into how high
a dignity, and how weighty an Office and Charge" a Priest is called,
certain safeguards surround his Ordination, both for his own sake, and
for the sake of his people.

_Age._

No Deacon can, save under very exceptional circumstances, be ordained
Priest before he is 24, and has served at least a year in the Diaconate.

_Fitness._

This fitness, as in Confirmation, will be intellectual and moral. His
_intellectual_ fitness is tested by the Bishop's Examining Chaplain
some time before the Ordination to the Priesthood, and, in doubtful
cases, by the Bishop himself.

His _moral_ fitness is tested by the Publication during Service, in the
Church where he is Deacon, of his intention to offer himself as a
Candidate for the Priesthood. To certify that this has been done, this
Publication must be signed by the Churchwarden, representing the {136}
laity, and by the Incumbent, representing the Clergy and responsible to
the Bishop.

Further safeguard is secured by letters of Testimony from three
Beneficed Clergy, who have known the Candidate well either for the past
three years, or during the term of his Diaconate.

Finally, at the very last moment, in the Ordination Service itself, the
Bishop invites the laity, if they know "any impediment or notable
crime" disqualifying the Candidate from being ordained Priest, to "come
forth in the Name of God, and show what the crime or impediment is".

Why all these safeguards? For many obvious reasons, but specially for
one. Priest's Orders are indelible.

_The Indelibility of Orders._

Once a Priest, always a Priest. When once the Bishop has ordained a
Deacon to the Priesthood, there is no going back. The law,
ecclesiastical or civil, may deprive him of the right to _exercise_ his
Office, but no power can deprive him of the Office itself.

For instance, to safeguard the Church, and for {137} the sake of the
laity, a Priest may, for various offences, be what is commonly called
"unfrocked". He may be degraded, temporarily suspended, or permanently
forbidden to _officiate_ in any part of the Church; but he does not
cease to be a Priest. Any Priestly act, rightly and duly performed,
would be valid, though irregular. It would be for the people's good,
though it would be to his own