Becoming the pope as the blasphemous HRE

[-Isapostolos-]

bump?

[Censor]

Be aggressive in the beginning, none of this pope appeasement crap. March on the Italian States as soon as you can, and cripple France early on.

[iwantmyaccountdeleted]

Erm. Well, try to garner support among the northern nations (Denmark, etc.) I more or less rigged an election by having perfect relations with almost every catholic nation so they followed where I went.

Preferati A - 1 vote
Preferati B - 1 vote
Preferati C - Guess how many votes :D?

Hope this helps

Stormbringer

[CrownOfSwords]

Be friendly with France if possible or just keep them from doing any damage, build a massive force and go take Rome problem solved

[Scotsmanforlife]

Well, though i wasn't trying to become the pope i managed it early on. I pumped out some clerics and sent them into lands where the catholic % was very low. By doing that i had about 3 of my clerics become cardinals almost one after another. Shortly after that once the current pope died my guy was nominated. As it stands right now my guy is the pope and i have an additional 4 cardinals. Two of which are bishop preferati.

[SirRethcir]

Take Florence and give it to the pope! (as a gift)
Offer tribute, 100 per 10 turns!
Build churches!

Ask for an crusade as soon as possible (lets say in the 3rd turn).
Gives you cheap troops, easy targets, Teutonic Knights, popes favor, piety etc.

After that you are pope's best friend.
Let enemies attack you, perhaps let them conquer a city of yours, soon they will be excommunicated an you can join an crushing crusade against them.

As HRE I was never excommunicated, though fighting against catholics almost exclusive. (Of course, until you battle against the pope himself ;) )

[Von Nanega]

This applies to all factions, But especially HRE.

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

1.Build Churches. (To maximum level possible.)
2.Diplomat to Rome to pay da Pope money every other turn or so.
3.Train Priests. (As many as you can, always have max priests.)
4.Send Priests to Non Catholic lands.
5.Try heretics and witches.
6.Go on Crusades.
7.If you can pull it off, assassinate Cardinals higher than yours in the College of Cardinals.
8.Try to maintain initially good relations with a couple of othe Catholic factions to get their vote for Pope.

You do this, you can control who the pope is eventually.