How to get Cardinals?

[ghyslyn]

my starting cardinal is dead, i only have one priest but he has 0 pious, how can i get my priests upgraded to become cardinals? they have to be pious right? and how do i get them to be pious? there are barely ever any heretics nearby

[jimbob]

Stick him in a region with a low percentage of catholics, and it'll start to go up. Any muslim owned region is best.

Building a cathedral means any priest you recruit in that city will automatically start as a bishop, although I think large cathedrals are bugged, and don't produce bishops. The theologians guild helps too, if you get that, and a cathedral, then you should be able to make a pretty powerful priest straight off. Dump him in a muslim region and kill any heretics that appear.

You wanna do this with a few priests, because the more cardinals you get, the higher the chances are of one being voted pope.

[scottn72]

I leave a prist in each of my regions, over time many of them become cardinals, I think that good relations with the Pope also helps get your priests promoted to the college, not sure about that though.

[TotalPeace]

I leave a prist in each of my regions, over time many of them become cardinals, I think that good relations with the Pope also helps get your priests promoted to the college, not sure about that though.

My feelings also, because as Portugal i have had so many priests become cardinals and out of 5 pope elections i have gotten 4 and each time mine were elected it was when my realations with papal states were perfect, and when the danish cardinal got elected i noticed my relations were down one from the top, whilst theirs were perfect, and the fact they had more cardinals therefore more votes is why i lost that particular election.

I think if you leave your priests in regions where they can convert the most population they improve faster, like its already been said, because i sent 3 priests to north africa early on as Portugal to set up for an invasion force, each one of those priests became cardinals, where as the ones still in my homeland didnt.

My tip for anyone wanting cardinals is to get 5 or six young aspiring preists and send them on a voyage to the middle east, you will have 5 or six cardinals in no time, and just be sure to maintain almost perfect relations with the Papalstates. And soon you will find one of your priests running things as the Pope.

[I Stab People]

I've owned 7-10 seats before and usually my cardinal gets elected Pope pretty much every time. I don't do anything special. I make building/upgrading churches somewhat of a priority, and I keep a Priest in every city. I just leave them in the city and occassionally execute a Heretic or Witch. That increases their traits. Their piety grows as they sit in the city/castle. I don't even bother marching them around unless the Pope asks me to.

[Aldaris]

I pretty much do the same. Always keep a high number of priests, and when you plan to conquer heathen territories, send some there in advance to help turn your future subjects into good catholics quicker. That, plus good to perfect relations with the pope (Monetary gifts. About a thousand per cross you are short from perfect) and you should have no trouble getting cardinals. Takes some time, but once you get the cycle started, you'll almost always have a few.

[ghyslyn]

one thing that worked out well for me, was very simple, if theres a heretic nearby, let him stay, of course itll stir some unrest but your priest gains xp faster then the heretic, and he'll be a good booster, usually i get more xp by letting the heretic live then by trialing him

[TotalPeace]

one thing that worked out well for me, was very simple, if theres a heretic nearby, let him stay, of course itll stir some unrest but your priest gains xp faster then the heretic, and he'll be a good booster, usually i get more xp by letting the heretic live then by trialing him

Yeah thats a good one.

I also did that plus i sent my crappy old fart priests with no piety to become heretics themselves, and them used my young bishop with enough piety to trial all the new heretics and always leaving a couple, to trial later and continue the process. Results in some mega Cardinals with more piety than what there is room for.

Takes a while to master the process and you need to prepare well because i did have one settlement rebel because there was too much religious unrest at one time. And then the papal states jumped in with their ready army and took the settlement for themselves, because i didnt have a local army ready to recapture it.

Also Cathedrals and huge cathedrals give you benefits such as retinue when the preists and bishops stay in the settlement, though that might be just in general dont know, but it seemed to occur bit more regularly when they were in settelments with cathedrals.

[fiveswords]

Not only you need good priests in your provinces, there also has to be one or more spare seats for cardinals - there are 14 of them. If all the seats are occupied with cardinals there won't be any new elections until one or more die because of age, accidents etc.

To improve your priests's skill burn heretics, spread catholizism in rebel provinces full of heretics or other beliefs and leave them in settlements with a high tech standard to get positive attributes.

>> Nice idea with the heretic, I'll try that the next time one comes into my reach.