Chapter 4 is one paragraph long. Lázaro’s former neighbors recommend he contact a friar (who is a relative of theirs) as a potential employer. Lázaro contacts the friar of the Order of Mercy. Lázaro mentions that the ostensibly religious friar doesn’t sing in the choir and won’t eat in the monastery. Instead, he enjoys anything that has nothing to do with the church: “He loved going out, worldly affairs and visiting people” (47). The friar visits so much that he wears out more shoes than anyone else in the community. The friar gives Lázaro his first pair of real shoes, but Lázaro wears them out in a week. He claims he leaves the friar because he is exhausted from all the running around. He adds that there are some other issues that make him leave, too, but he doesn’t name what they are. He only mentions that he leaves due to “one or two other things that I shan’t bother to mention” (47).

Lázaro’s next master is a seller of papal indulgences. People buy papal indulgences believing they offer protection against an afterlife in hell or in purgatory. From the start,