First off, please excuse the extreme necro - very bad form I know but I am desperate.
I am currently playing as a faithful but troubled Duke of Lombardy as a vassal to the HRE. I started in 1077 and it's now 1104 or so and the Emperor has had an anti-Pope in place for about 20 years now. Being a zealous Crusader and devout Christian like my father before me (we both fought in the failed First Crusade) I am livid that my lord continues to flout the True Pope in Rome.
I tried spying on the pretender and even went so far as trying to have him assassinated. The net result was that I managed to capture and imprison him, I then humiliated him by putting him in the stocks. Naturally it was then that the assassination plot fired and he was apparently used for target practice by a team of archers shooting from the grassy knoll - I'm really glad that they didn't miss, although the guy had been locked in place so the odds should have been pretty good !
Imagine my disgust when the Emperor simply shrugged this all off and appointed a new anti-Pope to take his place - he didn't even mind that I had used his old pretender as target practice !
I looked up both the Wiki and Google and it seems that there is nothing I can do as I am currently a vassal. I have been continually trying to curry favour with the "real" Pope, who loves me for my faith, but who hasn't given me any new options on how to depose this faker.
Am I missing something or is there no way for me to kill off this fake Pope, shot of going independent and attacking him from the outside ?
