Cardinals - what's the point?

[Medieval Assassin]

The feller's do raise zeal.

[Sinner]

Which fellers? Do you mean Cardinals now raise zeal in v2.01? If so, that's them off my shopping list.

[Ludens]

Which fellers? Do you mean Cardinals now raise zeal in v2.01? If so, that's them off my shopping list.

Catholic Bishops, Cardinals and Imams raise zeal as wel as faith. The only exception is the Alim: her raises only faith.

[Sinner]

Catholic Bishops, Cardinals and Imams raise zeal as wel as faith. The only exception is the Alim: her raises only faith.

Are you running a modded version of the game? I just checked the orginal crusaders_unit_prod11.txt file on my v2.01 CD and the only units that effect zeal - as per column 66 of the unit prod file - are both type of Inquisitor & Imans (Ulamas in the file), for catholic & muslims respectively. Cardinals, bishops (both flavours), priests & alims only effect faith.

[Ludens]

Are you running a modded version of the game? I just checked the orginal crusaders_unit_prod11.txt file on my v2.01 CD and the only units that effect zeal - as per column 66 of the unit prod file - are both type of Inquisitor & Imans (Ulamas in the file), for catholic & muslims respectively. Cardinals, bishops (both flavours), priests & alims only effect faith.

I would swear that my bishops and cardinals increased the zeal in my provinces. I have observed it many times that zeal was sky high seemingly without any other cause (except for an occasional inquisitor dropping by). Yes, I do run MedMod 2.04 but I checked the unit files and only (grand) inquisitors and Imams improve zeal.
Strange. Perhaps I should test it when I play a regular MTW campaign again.

[Darth Binky]

I don't use mods (I'm running VI 2.1) and neither of the religious dudes increase zeal.

It does appear that zeal will carry over into nearby provinces. So if you have one that is high zeal with an inquisitor (either flavor) pushing it higher, it'll bleed over into neighboring provinces. I dunno if it does so for sure, but it does appear so.

Also there are a few V&Vs that increase zeal.

But I have been playing as the Spanish, and the HRE and Pope have been huge, and they both keep using lots of high valor inquisitors against me. I am keeping a Cardinal in each province (as well as a couple assassins trained in Syria and a spy to catch enemy assassins, since Cardinals seem to be assassin magnets), and the inquisitors have been much less of a problem. But I haven't seen the Cardinals affect zeal in any way- it still drops over time if the inquisitors go away.

The Muslim ones don't affect zeal either. I always seem to wind up with all my provinces at 0 zeal partway through the game, and there appears to be no way to increase it. :

[sir_schwick]

Inquisitors really raise zeal? I have been using them to drop zeal in my non-crusader territories. It helps whenever my King or Governor becomes a Pervert.

As for Bishops, I love religious agents for spamming. Helps prepare for invasions, draw away assassins,a nd provide cheap intel.