End the catholic church?

[Anonymous01]

But cardinals would have to keep getting appointed, and the pope replaced on death.
If you converted, and forced conversions throughout your realm, then just kept trying to kill off the pope (probably gaining all sorts of plot power through false religion opinion modifiers?) then where do all the cardinals come from? Don't they need to have a bishopric somewhere to qualify? Or does that only contribute to cardinal appointment score, and so eventually any lowborn with 3 learning will be in the running?

The pope can appoint his courtiers as cardinals. But if there were no cardinals appointed, the game would just spawn a pope.

 

[Secret Master]

You should know that not only will the Pope never convert to another faith, he also cannot become a heretic by event.

For example, you can appoint the Pope as your chaplain and have him research cultural tech. If he gets the heresy event, it won't affect him.