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This seems like one of those things that might be tricky and require a few PoDs to work out, but which would have very interesting effects down the line. What if a system developed in the HRE by which the most promising young men throughout the empire were recruited into and trained for the imperial government[? It seems possible early on if you can find a way to use the lower clergy in a pipeline. Would such a system help the Empire centralize and weaken the feudal nobility? Obviously geography is still a hindrance, but a system like this could make it more possible to administer a substantial part of the empire more closely and link more of the empire directly to the imperial government