as in the gift of the college.
When he had been some months installed there as a priest-in-charge, he
received a prebendal stall, thanks to the same patrons, in the collegiate
church of Sainte-Croix.

It is easy to understand that the bestowal of these two positions on so
young a man, who did not even belong to the province, made him seem in
some sort a usurper of rights and privileges belonging to the people of
the country, and drew upon him the envy of his brother-ecclesiastics.
There were, in fact, many other reasons why Urbain should be an object of
jealousy to these: first, as we have already said, he was very handsome,
then the instruction which he had received from his father had opened the
world of science to him and given him the key to a thousand things which
were mysteries to the ignorant, but which he fathomed with the greatest
ease. Furthermore, the comprehensive course of study which he had
followed at the Jesuit college had raised him above a crowd of
prejudices, which are sacred to the vulgar, but for which he made no
secret of his contempt; and lastly, the eloquence of his sermons had
drawn to his church the greater part of the regular congregations of the
other religious communities, especially of the mendicant orders, who had
till then, in what concerned preaching, borne away the palm at Loudun.
As we have said, all this was more than enough to excite, first jealousy,
and then hatred. And both were excited in no ordinary degree.

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.
Urbain, who in his intercourse with his friends was cordial and
agreeable, was sarcastic, cold, and haughty to his enemies. When he had
once resolved on a course, he pursued it unflinchingly; he jealously
exacted all the honour due to the rank at which he had arrived, defending
it as though it were a conquest; he also insisted on enforcing all his
legal rights, and he resented the opposition and angry words of casual
opponents with a harshness whi