Best way to handle religious heads and land?

[NoodleNaught]

Hello Folks,

So I recently reformed a pagan religion, and it elected the most powerful priest in my land as religious head. He currently holds 2 counties outside of my main kingdom (Or any kingdom i care about for that matter). Should I continue to give him more land? (I.E. The de-jure kingdom he is in) Or should I revoke his two counties and keep him as just a landless titular leader?

Basically is it better to have religious heads with land, or as titular heads when possible?

 

[mrstevehazzard]

Religious heads used to need land to call Great Holy Wars, though I don't believe this is the case any more. Honestly I don't see a problem giving him land since it just means a powerful theocratic vassal, and theocracies are usually easier to keep in line than feudal vassals.

 

[NoodleNaught]

Religious heads used to need land to call Great Holy Wars, though I don't believe this is the case any more. Honestly I don't see a problem giving him land since it just means a powerful theocratic vassal, and theocracies are usually easier to keep in line than feudal vassals.

Yeah that was the idea behind me giving him land in the first place. It's just to continue with him having land I will have to give him a kingdom title once I'm an empire for efficient vassal distribution.
I see now that they don't have the wrong government malice though.

I don't think they need land either anymore. I believe that only applied to the Pope though anyways.

 

[Boodas]

I usually just give my religious head a holy site barony, or a temple in my capital.

 

[NoodleNaught]

I usually just give my religious head a holy site barony, or a temple in my capital.

Ah so kinda running it like the Orthodox groups. I was thinking of moving him to my capital, except I'm planning to move my capital eventually. I think I will just give him a kingdom at this point, he can be high priest of India or something.

 

[DPS]

The problem with giving church vassals a lot of land is that they can get really big. Yeah, it's usually easier to keep them in line than feudal vassals, but if a really big church vassal ever rebels, it can be a very large rebellion.

Personally, I like to give them temple holdings in my faith's holy sites.

 

[Boodas]

The problem with giving church vassals a lot of land is that they can get really big. Yeah, it's usually easier to keep them in line than feudal vassals, but if a really big church vassal ever rebels, it can be a very large rebellion.

Personally, I like to give them temple holdings in my faith's holy sites.

I made that mistake with a vassalized holy order once. I gave them lots of baronies throughout my Roman Empire. Since they are a duke they can join factions. One day my rival "brother" became the grandmaster...... It was a dark time.

 

[DPS]

If it's just your faiths hold sites, it's just 5 holdings.