Introduction The thema serves to introduce avarice as key vice, from which many sins derive ("radix omnium malorum est cupiditas") and to annunce that the whole week will be devoted to the analysis of this topic and it provides a general outline (as a small treatise). The sermon lists the different forms of illicit acquisition (furtum, rapina, usura, symonia, sacrilegium...) and discusses the first two: theft and robbery (the latter connected also with war)