Cornello

Cornello is an elderly man whose clerical outfit deliberately recalls Edward Elric's: a black, high-collared jacket edged with thin piping along the front and fastened by silver clasps, paired with black trousers, though he lacks Ed's signature red coat. When his counterfeit Philosopher's Stone backfires during the fight with the Elrics, the recoil twists one of his hands out of shape.

Cornello illustrates how much sway religious authority can hold over the faithful, and how easily that sway curdles into corruption. From the pulpit he plays the tender father figure, dispensing comfort and grand promises in Leto's name so that frightened, hopeful people will trust him and swell his congregation. Underneath, he is a gutless, greedy schemer who privately sneers at his flock as gullible fools and feels nothing about killing to advance. Take away the Stone that props up his miracles, and what remains is merely a status-hungry old man who was handed his position rather than earning it.

Shortly after Edward and Alphonse arrive in Reole, they realize that the priest's supposed miracles are just alchemy powered by a Philosopher's Stone in his keeping. Cornello openly admits he wants to build an army of devout fanatics vast enough to topple the Amestrian government and install himself as ruler. Ed beats him along with his chimera and a transmuted bird, and reveals the con to the assembled townsfolk, while the fake Stone rebounds and mangles the priest's hand.

No longer of any value to his patrons, Cornello runs to Lust, the one who originally handed him the Stone. She kills him, and Gluttony consumes the remains, after which Envy assumes his likeness to whip the town toward open conflict between believers and skeptics. The adaptations part ways on his final moments: the 2009 anime lets him swell into a monstrous giant using the Stone's power, while the 2003 anime and the original manga put him down almost at once, the rebound having left him all but helpless.