Centers of reformation

[Bunns Marley]

I am playing as Bohemia, and the protestant reformation started in my country next to my capital. Should I try to supress it? And if so, how? I want to continue being the emperor, but I don't know if by switching religion I will not be emperor anymore. So how can I proceed from here? By the way, also trying to grab the achievement where you possess both a protestant and reformed center of reformation ;).

[GamerGeorge]

Until after the Religious League wars only catholic rulers can be emperor, so switching religion is not an option, if you want to keep your title.

[Marquoz]

Originally posted by Bunns Marley:

I am playing as Bohemia, and the protestant reformation started in my country next to my capital. Should I try to supress it? And if so, how? I want to continue being the emperor, but I don't know if by switching religion I will not be emperor anymore. So how can I proceed from here? By the way, also trying to grab the achievement where you possess both a protestant and reformed center of reformation ;).

You have conflicting goals here. The Emperor of the HRE must be Catholic unless one of two things happens:

1) Protestant or Reformed nations win the religious league war. Then the Emperor must be their religion.
2) No one wins the religious league war. Then any male Christian ruler can become Emperor.

But the league war won't occur for decades yet. So if you switch religion, you won't be Emperor any more, and you say you want to. That means you want to destroy all the centers of reformation as fast as you can. If you don't, your imperial authority gain will fall to negative levels as more and more princes convert. But destroying the centers will prevent you from getting the achievement.

It's an either-or choice. The best way to get the achievement you want is to give up on being Emperor and let the Reformation grow like wildfire. The best way to be a strong Emperor and pass reforms is to crush the Reformation immediately.

As for how to get rid of them, it's easy. When a center appears in a capital province, declare war and use the "force religion" option to get rid of it. When it appears outside a capital, take the province for yourself and convert it once religious zeal wears off. Meanwhile, declare war after war to convert princes back to Catholic so that your imperial authority gain remains high.

[Bunns Marley]

Originally posted by Geek1977:

Until after the Religious League wars only catholic rulers can be emperor, so switching religion is not an option, if you want to keep your title.

So if I want to switch and remain emperor, should I lose the war? I don't understand completely this event/mechanic, as it is the first time I played this long inside the HRE. Long story short: how can I enable other religions in the empire, remain emperor, switch to other religion?

[Bunns Marley]

Originally posted by Marquoz:

Originally posted by Bunns Marley:

I am playing as Bohemia, and the protestant reformation started in my country next to my capital. Should I try to supress it? And if so, how? I want to continue being the emperor, but I don't know if by switching religion I will not be emperor anymore. So how can I proceed from here? By the way, also trying to grab the achievement where you possess both a protestant and reformed center of reformation ;).

You have conflicting goals here. The Emperor of the HRE must be Catholic unless one of two things happens:

1) Protestant or Reformed nations win the religious league war. Then the Emperor must be their religion.
2) No one wins the religious league war. Then any male Christian ruler can become Emperor.

But the league war won't occur for decades yet. So if you switch religion, you won't be Emperor any more, and you say you want to. That means you want to destroy all the centers of reformation as fast as you can. If you don't, your imperial authority gain will fall to negative levels as more and more princes convert. But destroying the centers will prevent you from getting the achievement.

It's an either-or choice. The best way to get the achievement you want is to give up on being Emperor and let the Reformation grow like wildfire. The best way to be a strong Emperor and pass reforms is to crush the Reformation immediately.

As for how to get rid of them, it's easy. When a center appears in a capital province, declare war and use the "force religion" option to get rid of it. When it appears outside a capital, take the province for yourself and convert it once religious zeal wears off. Meanwhile, declare war after war to convert princes back to Catholic so that your imperial authority gain remains high.

Ok I have tow questions:
1 - how can no one win the league war? You mean white peace? Then ANY christian can become emperor?
2 - The reformation appeared in a province next to Prague (playing as Bohemia); how then can I stop the spread? i can't convert them back, and I can't declare war on myself xD

[GamerGeorge]

Originally posted by Bunns Marley:

Originally posted by Geek1977:

Until after the Religious League wars only catholic rulers can be emperor, so switching religion is not an option, if you want to keep your title.

So if I want to switch and remain emperor, should I lose the war? I don't understand completely this event/mechanic, as it is the first time I played this long inside the HRE. Long story short: how can I enable other religions in the empire, remain emperor, switch to other religion?

you cant, as Marquoz just explained.

Emperor must have the official religion of the HRE. If you convert, you loose emperorship. You can only change the official religion of the HRE by the religious league wars and only become leader of the protestant league if you are not emperor.

[Marquoz]

You should study the entire wiki article on the HRE:

https://eu4.paradoxwikis.com/Holy_Roman_Empire

The answers to all your questions are in there. Feel free to ask for clarification on anything that's unclear.

[Marquoz]

Originally posted by Bunns Marley:

Ok I have tow questions:
1 - how can no one win the league war? You mean white peace? Then ANY christian can become emperor?

If the league war starts and a peace treaty is signed that doesn't include "Religious Supremacy" as part of the deal, then any Christian male monarch can become Emperor. This is VERY, VERY RARE when the AI is in charge of both sides. A player can make it happen if they want to, but you'll pretty much never see it otherwise.

2 - The reformation appeared in a province next to Prague (playing as Bohemia); how then can I stop the spread? i can't convert them back, and I can't declare war on myself xD

I already told you. Convert the province after religious zeal expires. Also, you need to realize that six centers of reformation are going to appear, not just one. There will be three Protestant and three Reformed.

Again, study the wiki page.

[Malvastor]

Originally posted by Bunns Marley:

Originally posted by Geek1977:

Until after the Religious League wars only catholic rulers can be emperor, so switching religion is not an option, if you want to keep your title.

So if I want to switch and remain emperor, should I lose the war? I don't understand completely this event/mechanic, as it is the first time I played this long inside the HRE. Long story short: how can I enable other religions in the empire, remain emperor, switch to other religion?

If you want to be a Protestant Emperor you'd have to convert, lose the Imperial crown, then focus on getting powerful yourself and building a powerful alliance bloc to win the League War with. Once the League War is won an immediate election happens and a Protestant is elected Emperor; this will most likely be you. But, at least as far as you're concerned, you can't become Protestant and stay Emperor.

[Bunns Marley]

I see. I will read the wiki and if any doubt remains I will ask. Thanks 👍

[grotaclas]

Originally posted by Bunns Marley:

Should I try to supress it?
[...]
By the way, also trying to grab the achievement where you possess both a protestant and reformed center of reformation ;).

What's the goal of your campaign? The best ways to suppress the reformation are at odds with the achievement for having two centers, because you would try to kill the centers as fast as possible.
Suppressing the reformation is often useful for a good HRE game. But if you want to be a protestant emperor, you would have to employ other strategies(involving spreading protestant and suppressing the reformed faith). One way how you could potentially get an easy protestant win in the league war would be to wait for the event which spawns the leagues and then leave it open while you prepare for the war(you have up to 4 months) and make sure that a weak country with weak allies will become emperor with whom you have no truce and then switch to protestant, join the protestant league and immediately declare the war. Then the league war will just be you and your subjects against the new emperor and his allies and their subjects. If you are strong enough to beat them alone, you can then use the religious supremacy peace term to make protestant the official unchangeable faith of the HRE. This triggers a new election. I think only the protestant electors will vote in that election, so make sure that they really like you and get the usual other factors in your favor to get elected again. But letting protestant run rampant in the HRE will ruin your imperial authority till the league war which can't happen until 1550(and usually much later)