"Small Gods", Priests and Logistics

[H3LL]

Terry Pratchett in 'Small Gods' mentioned that one priest required 40 people to support his [unproductive] activity.

Pratchett is not one to pull numbers out of thin-air, there is usually something he bases his stories on.

I know it's a million-to-one chance he is right, but we all know million-to-one chances happen nine-times-out-of ten.

Any info' out there on this one?

 

[pmurray]

Hmm. Perhaps this is some computation based on the tribes of israel? It's worth noting that not all Levites were actual priests in the temple.

 

[Mosquito]

Terry Pratchett in 'Small Gods' mentioned that one priest required 40 people to support his [unproductive] activity.

Pratchett is not one to pull numbers out of thin-air, there is usually something he bases his stories on.

I know it's a million-to-one chance he is right, but we all know million-to-one chances happen nine-times-out-of ten.

Any info' out there on this one?

It's a MLM thing.

Here's how it works (numbers are aproximates):

1 pope: 100 cardinals
1 cardinal: 25 arch-bishops
1 arch-bishop: 20 bishops
1 bishop: 20 priests
1 priest: ~1 auxiliary helper.

Each priest needs about 28 people (not 40, but bear with me).
Each bishop "gets" about 6 people from each priest, since they have a lot of priests, this gives a good base.
Each arch-bishop "gets" about 3 people from each priest (do the math).
Each cardinal "gets" about 1 people from each priest (dtm).
The pope also "gets" about one people.

The auxes get's about 3 people.

In total: 42 people for each priest.

This calculates to an organisation of:
1 pope
100 cardinals
2500 arch-bishops
50,000 bishops
1,000,000 priests
1,000,000 auxes
42,000,000 believers needed to support the organisation.

Any extra believers are pure profit.

Mosquito