Les Misérables, Chapter 11 summary

What happens

1. The narrator explains that meeting Convention member G—— makes Monseigneur Bienvenu gentler without turning him into a political thinker.
2. Summoned to a bishops’ synod, M. Myriel leaves quickly and criticizes the luxury surrounding his colleagues.
3. The narrator presents poverty as evidence of priestly charity, then examines the bishop’s Royalist hostility toward Napoleon.
4. The bishop treats his general brother harshly over his pursuit of Napoleon, while writing more affectionately to his other brother.
5. The narrator condemns attacks on fallen power but acknowledges the bishop’s tolerance toward people with different loyalties.
6. When a Bonapartist porter loses his position for mocking Louis XVIII, the bishop reprimands him gently and provides cathedral employment.

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