Auto da fe doesn't make you the next Duke.
So you only have more power than the duke if you can kick them out *and* take their lordship for yourself?
And if you do not have the support of the Judge and Ruler this could mean an instant ban.
Or you are protected by your liege lord with +3 or more good marks. Or you're not a member of that duke's realm.
But that's also beside the point. You expect to be able to completely upset the feudal hierarchy by taking action against a
Duke of the realm to remove him from his feudal seat without support of the rest of the feudal hierarchy and
not suffer any consequences? Do you really think that if some no-name pastoral priest walked into England and tried to drum the peasants up into a rabid mob to kick out the Duke of York that the King of England wouldn't have stopped it and clapped that idiot priest in chains and tossed him in the dungeon?
Beaten again by the feudal hierarchy. Or the charges of heresy must have broad support of the feudal hierarchy.
Again: If you can't do it, then you're demonstrably
not more powerful than the duke. Therefore you have no right whatsoever to be able to depose him. As a priest, your power is based on your influence and RP abilities, not the buttons you can push. Just because you happen to be a priest of a religion does NOT give you limitless power. You still have to play the game to get things done.
Then it might be possible, but only in a theocracy.
This is false. I have seen it done in realms other than theocracies.
However, when I said that a priest will never have more influence than a Duke is because we do not treat the priests as the speaking-tube of the Gods, the bringers of the Divine word. In medieval history they were more influential. And we do not see them as their medieval counterparts.
You are the ruler of a realm, correct? (And you have been a ruler of large realms in the past, as well.) So what are you personally doing to give priests this power in your realm? Do you personally give priests this power? If a priest of Triunism, and a noble of Barca, walked into Rettleville and kicked out your Duke, would you go along with it? Or would you have that priest banned?