The sacrament of Order is probably the sacrament most people know least about. This book describes its origins in the New Testament and the nature of the priesthood conferred upon the Apostles and their successors up to our Own times. Beginning with the Gospels and the writings of St Paul, it continues through the Church’s early years with an examination of the bishop’s task as detailed in such documents as St Clement of Rome's famous Letter to the Corinthians and Hippolytus’s Traditio apostolica. It shows how, from the very earliest times, the priest’s main task has been to be after Christus, another Christ, and to offer the same sacrifice he offered. Further chapters describe the evolution and essential nature of the rite of ordination, the origins and changing role of the various minor orders - doorkeeper, lector, exorcist, acolyte - through which a candidate for the priesthood must still pass, and the importance of the diaconate which is likely once again to assume the vital signfficance it once held. The reasons for the celibacy of priests in the West and the pagan origins of the tonsure are also discussed and a final chapter outlines what the Church teaches about the priesthood of the faithful and its relation to the hierarchical priesthood.