I must say, I quested Tom about this two days ago. I did it because my priest thought he would be a good ruler, but found himself without the prestige enough to that position.
First of all, I thought "well, why an ellected guy would need mechanical attributes?"
Ok, the In Game thing would surely need prestige to be known on the entire realm (as BM is the only place were we can find paper made instant messages), however, basing the opportunities for people only based on things that would be rised by time and doing the stupid-boring-common hack'n slash would only limit the good players. But ok, I know I'm defeated by the major of the people who do believe that all things above the fight are only side things.
After, I quested myself about why a priest would need prestige and honour. Than I realized that a priest would need prestige to boost his preachs. Be preached by an ordinary father would have not enough effect on you than be preached by Simon, Paul, or Jesus himself. The prestige is the directly line beetwen the subject and how his is well known on the land (and after the seas). More, the prestige would influence on the effects a preacher could develop with the peasants of the area. A prestigious one should not lose followers when he would start to influence them and tell how and on what think about, or on how many peasants would follow him on an Auto-da-fé against a pagan. The people of the land would not want to envy the lord of the land by persecuting one of his knights, or some of their food producers, altought a very prestigious priest can praticly dethrone the lord.
And, in the end, I thought about honour. Then, I thought about the history of the religions. The strongly religions on the world had or have strong armies. So I thought that, despite the desire of tom to do not let priests have soldiers, but I believe that, in a world governed by wars, why a priest would want to travel without some bodyguards?
