#I'm not actually religious myself I'm just a dumbass but I've always found religions and symbolism and history interesting and relatable

[canisalbus]

I probably should have asked this in the other ask, but I forgot! I noticed the white preachers collar Machete wears sometimes; is he apart of the Catholic church or something akin to it?

He's a Catholic priest and a Cardinal.

His story is canonically set in the 16th century Italy, around the late Renaissance era. He was born to a merchant class family in Sicily but was abandoned by his parents at a young age for being sickly and grew up in a monastery (which sometimes housed orphans at the time). There he learnt to read (which was a big deal and a huge advantage, historically only a very small portion of people have been literate, mostly nobles and clergy) and he was bookish, meek and hardworking enough to be apprenticed to a local parish priest and was sort of pushed towards the ecclesiastical field from then on. He moved to mainland Italy and studied in a couple of different universities before being ordained. At that point he started to feel like he was suddenly in control of his own life, he had proved his self worth and finally had the knowledge, wealth and power to be the top dog. That just sort of kicked his sense of ambition into overdrive and he began rising in the ranks quickly. He briefly upgraded to a bishop status before snaking his way into Vatican, where he was appointed cardinal (the scarlet red details in his wardrobe come from this, it's the signature color of cardinals and symbolises blood and martyrdom). He's very effective, competent and clever but rather unpopular in his circles, mostly for having a reputation of being weird, uncooperative and dishonest, for his lack of prestigious family lines and just for never learning how to be a genuinely pleasant person.