a prerequisite for victory in their crusade against the Ottoman Empire. The movement was thus diverted from its original object, and the peasants and their leaders began a war of vengeance against the landlords. The formerly peasant origin Franciscan friars became the ideologues of the uprising. With their help, Dózsa effectively threatened to excommunicate the religiously minded peasant-soldiers in his army if they betrayed their "holy crusader movement" and their "just" social goals. Based on the research of professor Sándor Márki, Dózsa and his co-elected senior fellows wanted to change the church and the political system fundamentally. They wanted to leave a single elected bishop for the whole country and to make all priests equal in rank, to abolish the nobility and to distribute their lands equally among the peasants. They decided that there should be only two orders: the city burgeroise (merchants and craftsmen) and the peasants, and they also wanted to abolish the kingdom as a form of government. Dózsa himself only wanted to be the warlord and representative of the people: subordinating himself in everything to the decisions of the people. Dózsa's most notable elected co-leaders Gregory Dózsa ( Gergely Dózsa ), younger brother of György Dózsa, Laurence Mészáros ( Lőrinc Mészáros ), a Franciscan monk and parish priest of Cegléd, who in his proclamation, the Pope, II. In the name of King Vladislaus and the legate, he promised the forgiveness of all sins and otherworldly punishment to those who go to the crusade, help it and take care of its sick, but he threatened church curses to those who do not do this. "Priest Barabbas" ( Barabás ), Ványa Ambrus from turkeve, a franciscan theologist who graduated from the university, he edited Dozsa's fiery proclamations to the people, Thomas Kecskés ( Tamás Kecskés ) from Aszaló, Francis Bagos (Ferenc Bagos), Anthony Nagy ( Antal Nagy ), the leader of the Kalocsa crusaders, nobleman from Sárköz, Benedict Pogány ( Benedek Pogány ), Ambrus Száleresi, a well-to-do citizen of Pest. Growing rebellion The rebellion became more dangerous when the towns joined on the side of the peasants. In Buda and elsewhere, the cavalry sent against them were unhorsed as they passed through the gates. The army was not exclusively composed of peasants of Hungarian nationality. A part of the army, about 40%, was made up of Slovaks and Rusyns from Upper Hungary, Romanians from Transylvania, Serbs from the