#I think Machete is a bishop but largely in name only
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Almost forgot to look at the tags in that Giordano post, I'm glad that Cardinals being higher than Archbishops was something you mentioned, and that I was remem that fact correctly :). And I love that Machete surpasses someone who thought him to be a "good for nothing". Go white boy go!
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#that sure pissed off that old man Giordano#didn't see that one coming#becoming a bishop is a very big deal#archbishop is an extra prestigious bishop that leads a particularly important diocese#and above both are cardinals#you usually have to be a bishop first to become one but it hasn't always been strictly mandatory there's lots of rules and exceptions#I think Machete is a bishop but largely in name only#in practice he kind of shortcutted from being a priest to a cardinal with very little bishophood in between#Vatican was kind of a wild west back then and in the end it's within Pope's power to grant these titles however he sees fit#and Machete was Pope's trusted personal assistant for years#moreover if you compare church ranks to secular royalty/nobility cardinals are equal to princes#so when you look at the power dynamics they're only second to pope as well as actual kings and queens#at least that's the case in Machete and Vasco's times I'm not sure about the present day#Vasco is a count so he's actually significantly lower in the hierarchy despite being blue-blooded#but neither of them have really internalized that#when they met Vasco came from a rich family and Machete was a no-name social climber#answered#anonymous
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When Machete became a cardinal, did his parents ever recognize him?
Machete's home village was on the other side of Italy (and separated by the sea no less) and it was small, relatively rural and remote. It's very unlikely many news about Holy See's happenings made their way there. I don't think his parents had any reason to expect to ever hear about him again, he seemed to be somewhat of a lost cause when they dropped him off.
#to my best understanding class divide was so immense you'd be very unlikely to ever encounter a single bishop in person let alone a cardinal#and people didn't move around like they do now chances are you'd die in the same town you were born in without ever leaving it#Machete tends to stick out visually and he's an important figure so maybe he's known by word of mouth even outside of the Vatican walls#if his parents met him they might maybe recognize him but he probably wouldn't recognize them#he doesn't remember much of anything from his early childhood#he doesn't go by his original birth name he was renamed at the monastery and has essentially reinvented himself since he became a cardinal#so ties to his sicilian past are largely cut I think#social classes were very fixed and rigid I believe one of the only ways to move to a higher status was to become part of the clergy#and again you needed to be at least passably literate to do that that was the largest roadblock#Machete may be kind of pathetic but his social climbing skills are nothing short of remarkable#part of it is just dumb luck but he is exceedingly hardworking and very very good at what he's doing#it took him less than 30 years to move from a provincial foundling to pope's right hand man#answered#anonymous#Machete
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