24 April 1514. On 30 April, after a solemn service, the Cardinal presented Dózsa with the symbol of the new crusade: a white flag with the red cross, blessed by the Pope. The recruitment was probably accelerated when, at about the time of Dózsa's supposed appointment, Bakócz entrusted the recruitment to the obscurantist branch of the Franciscan order. The 'stricter' branch of the Franciscan order, which had split in the 15th century, was one of the best-established in Hungary in the 1510s, with nearly seventy monasteries and 1,700 monks throughout the country. So in the last week of April, the Franciscan friars went into action, mobilising tens of thousands of men in a few weeks. In the first week of May, 15,000 men were already in arms under Pest, and in several camps throughout the country, a further 25,000 to 30,000 peasants were waiting for the start of the operations against the Turks. Within a few weeks, Dózsa had gathered an army of some 40,000 so-called hajdú, consisting for the most part of peasants, wandering students, friars, and parish priests - some of the lowest-ranking groups of medieval society. They assembled in their counties, and by the time he had provided them with some military training, they began to air the grievances of their status. No measures had been taken to supply these voluntary crusaders with food or clothing. As harvest-time approached, the landlords commanded them to return to reap the fields, and, on their refusing to do so, proceeded to maltreat their wives and families and set their armed retainers upon the local peasantry. The volunteers became increasingly angry at the failure of the nobility to provide military leadership (the original and primary function of the nobility and the justification for its higher status in the society.) The rebellious, anti-landlord sentiment of these "Crusaders" became apparent during their march across the Great Hungarian Plain, and Bakócz cancelled the campaign. At that time, Bakócz stopped recruiting on the news of the clashes between peasants and nobles in Mezőtúr, and later on he stopped the Whole campaign. However, György Dózsa, his brother Gergely Dózsa and several Franciscan monks, headed by the priest Lőrinc , disobeyed the order to stop the recruitment. From then on, the crusaders labelled the nobles and the king himself as pro-Ottoman traitors. After that, the peasant armies regarded the defeat of the nobility and the king as