2 sides of the same coin surely. if followers follow a particular priest, then you boot him, he'll have a chance of taking his flock with him.
simply excommunicate a notable priest and expect no loss of flock? hah!
if it's a priest of no following, then he will take a couple of hundred of followers at most. basically no loss.
it does not matter whether the priest is trying to set up anything. if he doesn't fancy going on after the boot, then let it lapse. you as elder should not be allowed to dictate whether he wants to split or not. don't want a big split? convert his followers before booting him.
You are assuming that any schism mechanic will, in fact, assign peasant followers to individual priests. That's a huge assumption.
put another way, unless the band aid is like a 5 minute job, why waste all the effort, when you can wait a few more months (well.. and hope it's not 1-2 years)
It might well be another year or more. No way to tell at this point.
