What is the trials importance to Brady and how does the sudden end to the trial upset his plan?

Brady strongly believes he is defending the faith of the world and is zealous in his efforts to do what he believes is right ­ whether that means stopping Rev. Brown from condemning his own daughter or prosecuting Cates to the full extent of the law. He has the full support of the town behind him until Drummond puts him on the witness stand and reveals his excessive pride and illogical beliefs. Brady is so proud he reveals that the believes himself to be, in effect, a prophet of God, who hears God's will and enforces it in the world. Brady, whose ambitions to be a great man were never fully recognized because of his three failures to be elected president, can not stand the humiliation. He engages in ongoing attempts to drown his sorrows with overeating. His death, which comes at the height of his humiliation, when Cates is given a joke of a sentence and the courtroom and radio man leave before the conclusion of his speech, causes a breakdown and ultimately his death.