In the course of the rite, the priest's hands are blessed, since he is to _consecrate the sacrifice_ offered for the sins and offences of the people; and he is given the chalice, etc., to show forth and emphasise the _power to offer sacrifice_ and _celebrate the Mass_; and in the final blessing God is asked to bless the newly ordained in the priestly order who is to offer _Sacrifices_ pleasing to Him. In a word the whole Ordination service in the Catholic Pontifical reiterates and most emphatically states the fact that the priest is ordained to offer up the Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ upon the altar. This is the dominant note running through the entire rite: the ordained is made a "sacrificing priest." Towards the close of the ceremony, and after the new priest has acted as such by co-consecrating with the Bishop at Mass, the Bishop gives him the power of jurisdiction by placing his hands upon his head saying: "Receive the Holy Ghost: whose sins ye shall forgive they are forgiven," etc. This was the rite of Ordination to the priesthood which was in existence in England at the time when the First Prayer Book of Edward VI was imposed on the English clergy and people. On the face of it there could be no possibility of allowing this old Ordination service to stand as it was. The Mass had been changed into a Communion service,--a memorial of Christ's Passion,--and the doctrinal teaching of the former had been made, rightly or wrongly, to give place to the Reformed principles clearly expressed in the latter. The notion of oblation and sacrifice was now wholly foreign to the Eucharistic teaching, as understood by the followers of the Lutheran German reformed religion, who had presided over the composition of the new Prayer Book. It became therefore necessary to draw up another form for the Ordination of ministers, conceived on the same doctrinal basis as that of the Book of Common Prayer. This new Ordinal was in fact already prepared when the Prayer Book was issued, and on January 5, 1550, a Bill to sanction it was introduced into the House of Peers. It gave rise to much discussion, and for refusing to assent to it one of the bishops was lodged in the prison where others of the Catholic-minded prelates were already confined. The "New form and manner of making and consecrating archbishops, bishops, priests, and deacons" was, however, approved of by Parliament in anticipation and ordered to be ready for April 1.