How are you doing that? I am playing Byzantium and just hit 1610. I tried your strategy, but it doesn't seem possible to piss off my burghers enough. I removed their privileges, took crown land two times in a row, lowered my stability, removed accepted cultures etc., but nothing happened. I could treat my subjects how I wanted, but nothing seemed to upset them. They still loved me, no matter no matter what I did, even at a mere 4.5% loyalty
Then I finally got a particularist revolt when I took crown land for the third time in 1620, but only in very few provinces. Everything I got out of this were around 12 absolutism. How should I proceed? Is Byzantium simply too stable for getting higher absolutism (which would be a bit ironic, since absolutism tried to get exactly the kind of stability and carte blanche for despotic measures that Byzantium seems to already have )?