Their chief function is to ordain, and to act as "intercessors."
They alone can administer the rite of confirmation, ordain priests and deacons, and exercise a certain dispensing power.
Leo treated the Uniate Greeks with great loyalty, and by bull of the 18th of May 1521 forbade Latin clergy to celebrate mass in Greek churches and Latin bishops to ordain Greek clergy.
For according to the Pontifical, the episcopate is the " summum sacerdotium "; the bishop in consecration receives " the sacerdotal grace "; it is " his office to consecrate, ordain, offer, baptize, confirm."
The bishop alone possessed the right to ordain; through him alone could be derived the requisite clerical grace; and so the clergy like the laity were completely dependent upon him.