Imprisoned Heretics; or: a study in impotence.

[Isaios]

So, my loyal Court Chaplain, the Bishop Swithræd of Melrose, had been sent to Middlesex to study the cultural legacy of the ancient Romans (like one does, as a Court Chaplain). Unfortunately, he had been somewhat influenced by ... unconventional thoughts while most diligently studying for his monarch, and had fallen prey to the lure of the Fraticelli heresy, a moust foul and ominous creed (espousing POVERTY as virtue of all things *shudder*). His monarch, being in all things a devout Catholic, lobbed him right in the slammer. ... Which is where the problems arose.

I can't actually DO anything. There's no free revocation, no free execution, no free banishment. I can force a conversion (he does like me after all) and I can release him (which seems rather ... counterproductive) and I can ransom him (slightly better, but still odd).

First, he's Fraticelli and has some 170 cash on hand. Hypocrite!

Second, he's a HERETIC! There should be stakes and torches. Or at least lobbing him out of the country. Am I missing something here? Being entirely too vindictive for my own (and my vassals) good?

 

[unmerged(397168)]

What's your crown authority? Medium and up should allow free revocation from heathens and heretics.

 

[Velorian]

It's a bit unrealistic he isn't forced to abdicate his bishopric, the church would definitely want that. The only thing that should be able to protect an openly heretic bishop would if his liege felt the same.

 

[The_Blind_One]

you really should just get a free banish...

but the ai tends to over use this as soon as it gets its dirty little hands on it.

 

[Talq]

Only medium crown authority and up.

And yes, a heretic bishop that you can do nothing about because your crown authority is too low is a tad unrealistic. (Maybe in future they will have a feature to allow bishops to be revoked if heretic or excommunicated (to represent papal agreement), but don' count on it.)

 

[Isaios]

Actually, I'd be more'n happy with a free execution (the other two options give some reward after all).

Lob them heads!

 

[Jautenim]

Why don't you just force him to convert back to Catholicism?

 

[Velorian]

Why don't you just force him to convert back to Catholicism?

You can't force him, only ask. If he hates you, you might have to bribe him, and even then he might still refuse. Realistically the church itself would support the monarch in replacing the heretic bishop with a member of the established faith.

Inability to revoke heretic territory when you have low CA makes sense because your vassals wouldn't want you to confiscate the lands for yourself, but realistically you should be allowed to force a heretic in possession of church land to abdicate.

 

[Talq]

erm, yes, and missed the execution bit - that WAS what they tended to do to unrepentant heretics at the time, and because the land doesn't go to the king, there doesn't seem an obvious reason for having no penalty.

 

[Malibu Stacey]

erm, yes, and missed the execution bit - that WAS what they tended to do to unrepentant heretics at the time, and because the land doesn't go to the king, there doesn't seem an obvious reason for having no penalty.

Annoyingly the land does go to the king in the game. I had a load of Court Chaplains turn heretic one after another but thankfully I already had Medium Crown Authority. After imprisoning a heretic I could strip him of his title and then release him but the title ended up with me & I got a notification that I held the wrong type of title. Easy enough to get rid of it, just find someone in your court you want to give it to (it's a great way to deal with bastard sons/half-brothers I find or anyone else in your dynasty with the ambitious trait) but it's still a pain having to do it when Bishops just appear out of thin air normally when the current one drops dead.

 

[Isaios]

The point, one imagines, was that when you EXECUTE a heretical vassal priest, the land does not fall to the suzerain, but merely triggers a standard inheritance.

There literally is no GAIN from executions (other than the obvious murderation), so it seems logical that an execution (free of tyranny effects) would be the optimal solution to heretics.