I’ve heard that many priests were the third sons of nobility—the first son inherits, the second goes into the military, the third into the priesthood. If so, it couldn’t do too much culling. But I am skeptical that there were enough noblemen’s third sons to supply Europe with priests.
I think it was also to some extent the profession of choice for smarter than average children of the middle/lower classes, they would probably end in the low ranking positions while the third sons filled out the top. If this is true then we needn’t worry to much about running out of altruism from it, but it may have cost us a bit of intelligence.
I’ve heard that many priests were the third sons of nobility—the first son inherits, the second goes into the military, the third into the priesthood. If so, it couldn’t do too much culling. But I am skeptical that there were enough noblemen’s third sons to supply Europe with priests.
I think it was also to some extent the profession of choice for smarter than average children of the middle/lower classes, they would probably end in the low ranking positions while the third sons filled out the top. If this is true then we needn’t worry to much about running out of altruism from it, but it may have cost us a bit of intelligence.