How to suppress Catholics?

[Dukasaur]

I'm struggling to save my Cathar empire and need some advice.

I'm playing Ironman and don't have the option of experimenting and reloading.

In all my years of playing CK, I always played a good loyal Catholic. Then, in this game, my insane character became Cathar through a random event, and I've decided to roll with it. There's been a lot of conversions since then, but after about 100 years of ceaseless strife and many revolts we are finally at a point at a point where everybody is Cathar, at least on the surface.

On the surface! Ha!

A new emperor just came to the throne. He's officially Cathar but secretly practices Catholicism and a member of the Society of Jesus. Through his eyes I now see just how deep this river runs. Six of the ten kings in my empire are secret Catholics and most are members of the Society of Jeses. That's right. Six out of 10, or 60%. About one-third of the Dukes and about one-eighth of the Counts. (It seems the secret society recruiters focus on the highest ranks.)

I think this is around the point where they will come out of the closet and seize the empire again. What can I do to stop it.

I read a walk-through file somewhere that said basically, "join the secret society, find out who they are, and kill them all." Haha. A lot easier said then done. I'm in the secret society, I know who they are, but killing them seems impossible. Assassination is a slow and unreliable process. Jailing and/or revoking builds up to a civil war pretty quickly. I don't have much money for bribes. What can I do?

Edit: Just for reference, I play vanilla. The only mod I have is the one that allows renaming the empire.

 

[Sunshine Moon]

Do you have Monks & Mystics? If so, the Court Chaplain "Hunt Apostates" mission is designed for this. With a skilled one, you'll be able to root them out and get free automatic execution or imprisonment on them. (The two were designed in tandem, since M&M also introduced secret religious cults albeit made them part of its free accompanying patch) If not, I guess try and make sure you have a strong enough demesne to fight a lot of your vassals at once if it comes to it.

Either way, if you aren't getting much out of knowing who they specifically are, I recommend forgetting the society and renouncing your secret Catholicism so you don't get caught on the wrong side of a religious conflict--and not having the emperor will make them less likely to go for it.

And pass religious revocation law no matter what (part of crown authority if you don't have conclave).

 

[mrinku]

I managed to essentially Catharise Western Europe through Seduction once. Generally that trick needs a female ruler, though, since you usually want to seduce popes.

I'm not familiar with how it works for the Catholic version of secret religion (some of them have special rules), but if you are able to become leader of it, there may be an option to disband it. Won't prevent it rising again, but they'd have to restart recruiting.

Here's a radical option for you unless you're hopeless at intrigue - note down all the members and swap societies to the Satanists, switch to Intrigue focus and start abducting. NOT particularly compatible with using "Hunt Apostates", since they'll find Satanists as easily as Catholics (possibly more easily). Once they're in jail, do with them what seems best - killing them may not help if their heir is also a secret Catholic (likely), but just being jail cuts down their options.

Edit: for bonus complexity, note down all the Satanists and once you're ready, leave it and start hunting *them* down too.

 

[WomboCombo]

I tend to play very tall and the way I root out secret societies is through accelerationism. I usually join it and ruin it from the inside, revoking, jailing and executing people in there, never completing my quests. Then if I happen to become rank 4 I immediately make us all publicly declare. I flip back to my original faith, then go on a revoking spree.

 

[FifthMonarchy]

I just turn them off in game rules
/not helping

 

[Dukasaur]

I tend to play very tall and the way I root out secret societies is through accelerationism. I usually join it and ruin it from the inside, revoking, jailing and executing people in there, never completing my quests. Then if I happen to become rank 4 I immediately make us all publicly declare. I flip back to my original faith, then go on a revoking spree.

Yeah, trying to do that. So far I jailed 3 Counts, murdered one one Duke and one King. Got the dynastic kinslayer trait, which really sucks, but at least now I can stop worrying about it. Multiple dynastic kinslayings don't stack, I hope.

How do you flip back? Do you need to wait for an event or do you get an option right away?

 

[WomboCombo]

Yeah, trying to do that. So far I jailed 3 Counts, murdered one one Duke and one King. Got the dynastic kinslayer trait, which really sucks, but at least now I can stop worrying about it. Multiple dynastic kinslayings don't stack, I hope.

How do you flip back? Do you need to wait for an event or do you get an option right away?

If you have Rajas of India DLC and own one of the holy sites, you can right click it and just convert. If not, you can marry someone who has the religion you really want and secretly switch + publicly declare back.

 

[IndigoRage]

Invade them militarily when they try to intervene in your civil war, then colonize them and set up a plantation economy using people from Scotland. Hope this helps.

 

[IndigoRage]

If you have Rajas of India DLC and own one of the holy sites, you can right click it and just convert

What the hell? I never knew this.1400 hours, all since Rajas of India was released.

 

[Dukasaur]

If you have Rajas of India DLC and own one of the holy sites, you can right click it and just convert. If not, you can marry someone who has the religion you really want and secretly switch + publicly declare back.

No, sadly just vanilla. Only mod I have is the one that allows you to rename the empire.

Getting some good ideas.

My secretly-Catholic emperor died now, and a solidly Cathar emperor took over. I have the names of all the Cryptocatholics in a secret book that I left for my successor. We will continue jailing them and murdering them when possible.