"A good catholic leader can get powerful boons from the pope"

[Gunnarr]

I have seen this over and over in the tips on the loading screen (perhaps not the exact words)

What are these powerful boons? I have never seen them

or are they just talking about the ability to divorce and call excommunications?

 

[Cymsdale]

I've sometimes had the pope dump a bunch of gold in my lap.

 

[ByzCrusader]

I've sometimes had the pope dump a bunch of gold in my lap.

While you're holy warring or on crusades, the pope sometimes sends you 250 gold to aid your fight against the infidel.

 

[ziamatt]

Divorce, excommunication, and invasions (not to mention protection against all of these things).
As well as some random events.

 

[Hackworthy]

As has been mentioned he'll send you money to fund righteous wars but he may also send you money completely randomly. Pope money is trivial late game but it's pretty awesome early on, especially if you are in a technologically primitive area like most of Europe.

 

[JonStryker]

You can holy war non-stop with like 6 wars going at a time, 10k+ piety etc., convert half of the map and still the pope will excommunicate you. Fuck him and his so-called "powerful boons".
I'm hoping the pope will be overhauled at some point. It would be nice if he actually tried to strengthen the Catholic faith by for instance frequently giving money to Spanish rulers.

 

[Casiru]

The pope CANT excommunicate you if you have high relations. Hell if you have papal investiture and no negative opinion from traits your probably over the limit. If you want free investiture you should consider an anti-pope.

 

[Vizier]

You can holy war non-stop with like 6 wars going at a time, 10k+ piety etc., convert half of the map and still the pope will excommunicate you. Fuck him and his so-called "powerful boons".

Well, in his opinion you are doing it for personal glory and self-aggrandizement instead of purely religious reasons. Besides, you are too powerful and popes hate when people grow too powerful on their turf—reminds them of Henry III.

The ideal Catholic ruler sits around and do nothing unless called by the Pope. Even then he or she must gladly submit to his designs and share the spoils of war with his or her brothers of faith and the church—mostly with the church.

 

[Gunnarr]

I've sometimes had the pope dump a bunch of gold in my lap.

ah yes, I forgot about this.


But what I was thinking when I read that was something like a trait or something like the "Good knight" thing.

I mean perhaps he could give a "favored king" or "defender of the faith ' kind of trait or something, that increases relation with bishops or something, increases piety, or relations with catholic vassals a little.

 

[unmerged(26764)]

The big one is invasion. If you're playing in the Orthodox area, you can't get an invasion. And when you pull one of these off, the results are quite awesome. Completely conquering a large nation and replacing every single ruler, without even having to have a claim? That's a pretty powerful boon.

 

[Chazzen01]

ah yes, I forgot about this.


But what I was thinking when I read that was something like a trait or something like the "Good knight" thing.

I mean perhaps he could give a "favored king" or "defender of the faith ' kind of trait or something, that increases relation with bishops or something, increases piety, or relations with catholic vassals a little.

You mean the "True Christian Night" thing you get if you have all positive traits?

 

[JonStryker]

Well, in his opinion you are doing it for personal glory and self-aggrandizement instead of purely religious reasons. Besides, you are too powerful and popes hate when people grow too powerful on their turf—reminds them of Henry III.

The ideal Catholic ruler sits around and do nothing unless called by the Pope. Even then he or she must gladly submit to his designs and share the spoils of war with his or her brothers of faith and the church—mostly with the church.

Basically true. But it still seems pretty odd for the pope to constantly excommunicate the ruler of the only remaining independent Catholic realm (besides the much weaker HRE). Naturally I set up an antipope if I payed off the excommunication a couple of times and he won't stop to excommunicate me again. Because of this I kinda like playing Orthodox realms