Manipulating the pope

[The Computer Illiterate]

so, is there a guide or anything on how to successfully take over your catholic neighbors without enraging the pope Other than getting in an alliance with him and jointly invading your enemy.

[Andytheplatypus]

No guide that I know of. Simple thing to remember though is this: if you attack enemies on your land it wont effect papal favor. If you defend yourself it will not effect it. That is the main thing to watch out for. You also have to watch out who the pope is allied with because he will always prefer those who have higher papal favor then those who dont. Easiest way to increaee papal favor is with gifting money to papal states.

[Grabbin_Megroin]

It's hard to do early game, but if you have lots of spare cash all you need to do is bribe the guy to get what you want. Every turn just make sure that your relations with him are perfect, and if you attack a catholic faction he will only issue a warning. Now there is a glitch that even if he just issued you a warning it will still give you the "this will result in excommunication!" message, but if the original warnings penalty was only a drop in favour then you'll be fine.

After you attack and lose favour, get relations back to perfect via gifts of florins. Rinse and repeat. Just make sure you have a diplomat glued to Rome.

Note that you don't have to get the relations to perfect, outstanding will do, and maybe even very good. To be safe I like to keep it at perfect. You need to be careful though, if you forget for one turn to maintain strong relations you'll get the excommunication warning, and then you'll have to wait the 7 or so turns before you can attack again.

[Deathchant]

When you have built your army and are ready to invade your catholic neighbours territory, make sure you have siege equipment i.e. catapults so that you can attack the settlement / castle in the same turn. This way the territory is already yours before the pope has a chance to issue you a warning. Nothing more irritating than having a cease hostilities message when you are besieging somewhere, resulting in you having to break the siege and go home to avoid excommunication.

That is a little bit crafty though and manipulates the game somewhat, the best way is the above tips for keeping him sweet with money!

[Jack The Hammer]

I do the same as the above:

Atack catholics in one turn
give money
Assassinate him
Also i try to manipulate the college of cardinals

[RobotGonzo]

The beauty of the bribery strategy is the historical authenticity.

[The Computer Illiterate]

What if the catholic faction you want to attack is allied to the pope?

[Andytheplatypus]

If your relations are higher then the popes allied catholic friend then it doesnt matter. Factions will like whoever has a higher relation with them.

[The Computer Illiterate]

I tried attacking france who seems to have lower relations with the pope (8 crosses) when compared to me (10 crosses) but the pope always breaks the alliance with me.

EDIT: Nevermind, I realized it's because my reputation (below very untrustworthy) was too low and I had to get that up first before the pope would side with me despite having 10 crosses.