The Price of Speaking Truth — The Iron Heel

Avis encounters Bishop Morehouse after his mysterious disappearance, finding him transformed from wealthy clergyman to common laborer living among the poor. The Bishop had been institutionalized in a mental asylum after preaching that the Church had abandoned Christ's teachings for material wealth. Though he appeared to recant and was released, he secretly sold all his possessions and now lives in hiding, using his fortune to directly help the destitute. Avis follows him to a tenement where they meet an elderly German seamstress who works brutal hours for six cents per finished pair of pants, barely surviving on one meal a day.

The woman's daughter died from factory work at forty, a tragedy that haunts her daily. The Bishop, now dressed in overalls and carrying coal, has found his true calling feeding 'Christ's lambs' with actual food before spiritual nourishment. He lives in constant fear of being recommitted to the asylum, knowing that society considers anyone who gives away wealth to help the poor to be insane.

Despite his terror of the madhouse, he continues his work, having learned that labor is criminally underpaid while he had lived off others' work his entire life. The chapter ends with the Bishop being recaptured and committed to Napa Asylum, illustrating how the system destroys those who threaten it by actually following Christian principles. Ernest bitterly notes that while Christ told the rich to give to the poor, modern society declares such people crazy.