Possible Clues:

• Direct
• Take into holy orders
• Appoint, as a rabbi
• Invest in merger of Chelmsford and Aintree?
• Dictate or babble, penning article
• Arrange for DA indispensable to case
• A rod for whipping, in command
• Alternatively, row about a decree
• Make a priest or old monk take one in
• Rule of old king leading to uproar round area