# The Priest — The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes character guide

> The Priest in The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes by Anonymous.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** the priest, the miserly priest

**First appearance:** 0010-second-master

## Snapshot

A parish clergyman who hoards bread in a locked chest and counts every crust, starving the boy who serves his altar.

## Who they are

Lazarillo's second master, he embodies the gap between the Church's plenty and its ministers' greed, keeping a chest of loaves while his servant gnaws hunger. His obsession with accounting turns charity into arithmetic, and the boy's desperate schemes to reach the bread become a small war of attrition. This episode sharpens the book's anticlerical bite and shows Lazarillo graduating from petty theft to calculated survival.

## Relationships

### [Lazarillo de Tormes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters/lazarillo_de_tormes)

_professional_

Lazarillo works as the priest's servant, but the priest starves him and hoards food, creating a relationship of exploitation and resentment.

### [The Squire](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters/the_squire)

_rivalry_

The priest and the squire are rivals in social standing, each looking down on the other's poverty or greed.

### [The Archpriest's Maid](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters/the_archpriests_maid)

_professional_

The Archpriest's maid and the priest interact as members of the same ecclesiastical household, with the maid serving the priest's needs.

### [Lazarillo de Tormes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters/lazarillo_de_tormes)

_professional_

Lazarillo works as the priest's servant, but the priest starves him and hoards food, creating a relationship of exploitation and resentment.

### [The Archpriest's Maid](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters/the_archpriests_maid)

_professional_

The Archpriest's maid and the priest interact as members of the same ecclesiastical household, with the maid serving the priest's needs.

## In the story

### [Introductory](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/chapters/introductory)

Second master, a miserly clergyman who starves Lazarillo.

### [Notes on the Character of Lazaro](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/chapters/notes-on-the-character-of-lazaro)

Lazaro's second master, who starves him. Lazaro's ingenious ways of getting at the provisions are amusingly told, and the boy's terror at the coffin is highlighted.

### [The Life of Lazarillo de Tormes](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/chapters/the-life-of-lazarillo-de-tormes)

Lazaro's second master, a miserly clergyman who starves Lazaro and hoards bread.

### [Second Master](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/chapters/second-master)

A miserly clergyman who starves Lazaro while hoarding food. He is deceived by Lazaro's tricks but eventually discovers the truth and attacks him.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters/the_priest
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_life_of_lazarillo_de_tormes_se/characters