Pop Up Pope

[Martok]

Yeah, the Pope generally doesn't move beyond his original two territories. Every once in a while, though, His Holiness gets frisky and decides he's going to take your favorite vineyards for himself. (I'm sure it's just because he doesn't want wine clouding men's minds and leading them to sin. ) It's not terribly uncommon (at least in my games) for the Papacy to take out the Italians and/or Sicilians and conquer the entire Italian peninsula.

I have (on very rare occasions) even seen the Vatican become a superpower. The few times I've witnessed the phenomenon, it was usually precipitated by constant fighting between the HRE and Italians. The prolonged warfare between the two factions sapped their strength, and were therefore unable to resist when the Pope (ever the opportunist!) decided to "intervene". If the French have also been weakened by war (usually with the English/HRE), the Papacy can expand unchecked all the way to the English Channel and Atlantic seaboard.