Urbain Grandier

EXCERPT
We all know how easily the ill-natured gossip of a small town can rouse the angry contempt of the masses for everything which is beyond or above them. In a wider sphere Urbain would have shone by his many gifts, but, cooped up as he was within the walls of a little town and deprived of air and space, all that might have conduced to his success in Paris led to his destruction at Loudun.
It was also unfortunate for Urbain that his character, far from winning pardon for his genius, augmented the hatred which the latter inspired.