Anyway to destroy Popes forever?

[Dude with the Food]

Looking at another thread got me thinking. Someone said about spamming assassins and killing Popes and Cardinals until your own cardinals won. But what if you kill them all then the Pope. It would have to happen very quickly probably in 1-2 turns but what would happen then. No Pope and no Cardinal to take his place. Would there be no Pope until a preist gets 5 piety? Or would that be the end of the Papacy?

Any thoughts, or anybody up for a challenge?

[Incredible Bulk]

Yes make sure you or no other faction has a priest lest, it's pretty hard to kill every priest, that's the only known way without messing with files but again yourself likely to win the lotto than to kill every single priest out there

[Kaiser Nonsense]

Yes make sure you or no other faction has a priest lest, it's pretty hard to kill every priest, that's the only known way without messing with files but again yourself likely to win the lotto than to kill every single priest out there

That is exactly what I'm going to do, I'm destroying every faction in game (only Venice, Hungary, Poland and Sicily left and Turkey, Russia and Moors, Byzantium of non-catholic), including Catholic, playing as the HRE, when I finish I won't recruit any priests anymore, and I will assassinate every Papal States priest I find, just to see if it will work or the game will randomly create a new character and name him Pope.

[Silverheart]

It´s true, that there will be no more pope if there are no catholic priests of sufficient piety.
However, the Papacy - more specifically, the faction of the Papal States - would still remain, just in a dormant state. You can´t destroy the faction.

[gaunty14]

In a French campaign on Stainless Steel I made sure there was no Pope and Cardinals at least for 10 turns while I committed genocide against the various Italian states

My faction leader got quite a lot of dread for doing that but it worked. The Papency will sadly always survive though through scripting, you can wipe the faction off the face of the earth but a few turns later a pious faction will have given a settlement to the Papal States. The locations can be quite amusing though. I gave them Baghdad in one campaign just as the Timurids arrived.

[Steward Denethor II]

To destroy the Pope forever you must not be a catholic nation. Destroy all other catholics and then eliminate the Papal States cities and armies. The Pope will keep appearing untill the Papal States runs out of priests. Kill each new Pope. Then it will only be a matter of time before all their agents die out (Assasins or the 8 unit agent kill can help speed this up. Also it is a good idea to destroy all their fleets. Once they do lose their agents and all units fleets and cities the Papal States will be essentially destroyed but sadly you never get the "faction destroyed" message.

Edit: Darn, I was beaten. I think the above poster Sir Brian de Bos-Guilberts method will work anyways, even though he is playing as the Catholic HRE.

[tudor93]

Have you ever tested this, guys?
Because I know this was discussed many times on the forum and many users who tested this said that you can't destroy the Pope (I don't know about the Papal States). Even if you kill every priest on the map a Pope will still spawn.

[Comrade Roboto]

Have you ever tested this, guys?
Because I know this was discussed many times on the forum and many users who tested this said that you can't destroy the Pope (I don't know about the Papal States). Even if you kill every priest on the map a Pope will still spawn.

Damn Popes will never learn, even after killing them like 10 times. You'd think they would have given up by then, but no, there's always that one idiot who wants to become Pope because he's pious .

[Aeratus]

Have you ever tested this, guys?
Because I know this was discussed many times on the forum and many users who tested this said that you can't destroy the Pope (I don't know about the Papal States). Even if you kill every priest on the map a Pope will still spawn.

It's the opposite. You can destroy the pope by eliminating all possible priests that can be promoted to pope, but you can't destroy the papal states.

Papal states cannot be destroyed because it's hard coded to exist, just like the rebels.

[Earl of_Duke]

You can neuter the Pope/Papal States, though.

In one of my Moorish campaigns, with spies and sabotage, I managed to make Rome revolt. (His only remaining provence.) The Pope and his armies were kicked out, I captured the now rebel Rome, chased away the papal armies... and they remained where they stood... forever.

I expected some good Catholic to offer Him a new territory... but nobody did.

[Comrade Roboto]

You can neuter the Pope/Papal States, though.

In one of my Moorish campaigns, with spies and sabotage, I managed to make Rome revolt. (His only remaining provence.) The Pope and his armies were kicked out, I captured the now rebel Rome, chased away the papal armies... and they remained where they stood... forever.

I expected some good Catholic to offer Him a new territory... but nobody did.

That old man couldn't hold on to his own city, why would they trust him with theirs? Seems only logical .

[Kaiser Nonsense]

I managed to do it! I destroyed the Papacy, not the faction though, simply destroy all Catholic factions, let the Papal States with no settlement at all, then let all your priests die, assassin the Pope, and there you go, no more Pope.

[TheDarkKnight]

I once stationed an Assassin in Rome for quite some time. I was bored so I kept assassinating the pope over and over...I killed eight popes (seven in a row, missed the eighth attempt and did it on the ninth) before one of my cardinals became Pope. It was quite epic.