Priests

[Kuldahar]

Sorry for the noob question, but I am having problems figring out how to use priests and get them into the college of cardinals. I produce them, but then nothing much happens. Do I need to send them somewhere, shold I send a diplomat to the pope....any help with the religion part of this game would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much.

Kuld

[OneEyedCactus]

Well, the way you "use" priests can take a couple of forms. Walking or standing one in your own territory will increase the percentage of your religion in that region (hence the "--% Orthodox/Catholic/Islam" which will appear around your mouse pointer when you select a priest and hover over a landmass). Raising the prevalence of your religion in your own lands, using priests and religious structures, will reduce unrest, both civil and religious. However sending your priest to lands of rival religions can counter-act their religion and start to convert their population, causing unrest for them. As far as I have observed (though I could be wrong) the percent bonus you get per turn (not including churches) seems to be equal to the priest's piety. Priests also attempt to "denounce" heretics and burn them at the stake. Similarly to assassins and spies, the higher their piety, the better their chances of doing so. As well as this priests can sit in a city with a governor or accompany an army which (reportedly) raises the piety of the general or governor in question.

As for getting cardinals, you first need some higher-Piety priests. Probably the best way to do so is to just train a fair few priests. Now, sitting them for 30 years in a 99% Catholic region ain't gonna do much. You'll be better off sending them to one of the Orthodox or Islamic regions, or at least a lower % Catholic region to convert people. Not only does this give them piety, you'll also perhaps cause some unrest amongst enemies or rivals. Make sure you denounce heretics when the odds are in your favour as you'll often gain a piety point for doing so.

Once you have some high-piety priests it's a matter of cardinals dying, which you can either wait for or you could help them along. If your priests are high enough they'll usually be selected to replace the dead one. And of course sending a diplomat to the pope, giving him gifts, allying with the Papal States, and generally being nice to him and other Catholics will give you a boon not only in this part of the game but a fair bit of it.

This seems longer than I set out to make it :/ Hope it helped

[Imperator Romani]

I think he answered it pretty good but I'd like to add a little to it. If you see and Inquistor near your priests, you should probally move them as they tend to kill them sometimes. I know some people are going to say that that won't happen if you have good relations with the pope, but I've been allied with the pope and had perfect standings and an Inquistor killed one of my good priests.

And here's a nifty idea. If you see a heretic and have some 1-2 piety priests around, send them to try to denounce him and you might get lucky if they become heretics too. This way you can send in a cardinal,bishop, or a good priest not quite there yet and give him some nice piety. Again some people will say this is wasting priests but they just take 1 turn to recruit and you can recruit them everwhere that has the lowest tier of a church.

[Silent Assassin]

Please refer the The Great Informatrive Thread before posting, alot of guides already answers your questions.

Click in my Signature the direct link is there

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