How can Austria counter The Reformation?

[SirKraven]

It's 1503 I'm Austria have Hungary, Bohemia in PU and of course HRE emperor. The Reformation has sparked and I was wondering what events, casus belli, or strategies does Austria have access to counter the Reformation? ( Also I have All DLC if it matters)

[Songbird]

Religious league war :)

[The_Dead_Artist]

Try and Enforce religious Unity on all nations where the Reformation springs up. If the Capital is a Center of Reformation it will automatically switch back to Catholic if they accept the request and you won't have to worry about the passive spread of the religion.

If they refuse the request you'll get a free CB so go to war and Enforce Religion in the peace deal. Failing that Fabricate Claims on all bordering Protestant nations and force them back to Catholic in the peace deal. As Austria and Emperor with all those allies and PU's the wars will be quick and easy. As you're not taking land you will have zero AE so just keep attacking and force converting as each HRE member goes Protestant or Reformed.

[Mr.M]

^ Cant force Religion before Religious Supremacy, which happens until around 1600 for Catholics.

What you want to do is take out the Reformation Center as quick as possible - by declaring war on the nation with the center or an ally of them. Or an ally of an ally and making them co-belligerent.

Then just force Religion in Peace deal and tadaa.

[Fellini_Fiend]

Whatever way you can find to destroy Centers of Reformation do it. Even if it means a no cb on someone you can’t get to in North Germany. Also I’ve recently found out that unless a cb specifically says you can force someone to convert in a peace deal then you absolutely can enforce them to convert.

I did a trade focused cb on Venice in a game before and I forced hem to convert. So I suppose any CB you have on someone can work unless it’s the Humiliate Rival CB but I’m not even sure if that disallows religious conversions I can’t remember. You have a cb on a heretic over an insult well then I bet you’re in luck and can force them to convert. But do keep in mind the Center of Reformations HAS to either a) be their capital or b) become their capital if you take a province or more from them in the same deal. For example if they have two provinces and the one that isn’t currently their capital is the center then the center gets convert after since they are forced to remain with only that province. I believe the conversion gets calculated after all the other factors in peace deal which causes them to convert the center of Reformation.
You can also just deal with the Reformation by waiting it out and trying to convert those you have access to and then deal with it properly later on. You definitely finds ways to force electors from becoming heretics so that the religious leagues don’t become a thing.