You must follow religious leader or cartoon character (6)
I believe the answer is:
popeye
'cartoon character' is the definition.
(comic strip character)
'you must follow religious leader' is the wordplay.
'you' becomes 'ye' (historical version of 'you').
'must follow' is a charade indicator (letters next to each other).
'religious leader' becomes 'pope' (I've seen this in another clue).
'ye' put after 'pope' is 'POPEYE'.
'or' is the link.
(Other definitions for popeye that I've seen before include "I eat spinach" , "Spinach-eating sailor" , "mariner?" , "The Sailor Man" , "Bluto's rival" .)