All alike were subject to the rapacity of their gaolers and the extortions of their fellows.
In 1410 Jerome, who had incurred the hostility of the archbishop of Prague by his speeches in favour of Wycliffe's teaching, went to Ofen, where King Sigismund of Hungary resided, and, though a layman, preached before the king denouncing strongly the rapacity and immorality of the clergy.
His rapacity disgusted even an age in which every one could be bought and sold.
By 1520 philanthropic churchmen directed their attention to the miserable conditions of the natives; but remedial legislation was largely nullified by the rapacity of subordinate officials, and before the end of the 16th century the natives disappeared as a distinct race.
Scholars will pay little heed to the charges of rapacity, extortion, pomp and luxury made against Paul by the authors of this letter.