This is an idea I've been tossing around for awhile now, but how could we give a Habsburg the Papal Tiara? The Medici's had it several times, so why not a Habsburg, after all they were the great defenders of Catholicism.
Perhaps if HRE Charles V established lasting influence in Roman politics rather than sacking Rome. I doubt he could establish a Habsburg pope immediately -- I don't think there were any good candidates. However, if he could bring Rome into the political orbit of the Habsburgs...
I dont know how France would react to that... Francis I would have been enraged...
I've wondered that myself. I suppose that Curia was rather wary of giving spiritual power to the already very temporally-powerful Habsburgs.