much time outside Hungary, especially in his other realms, such as Germany and Bohemia. The Ottomans attacked Transylvania almost every year starting in 1420. The peasants had to pay the increasing costs for defence against the Ottomans. They were regularly obliged to pay "extraordinary taxes" in addition to the chamber's profit (the traditional tax payable by each peasant household to the royal treasury). The king also ordered that every tenth peasant should take up arms in case of an Ottoman attack, although peasants had always been exempt from military obligations. The accommodation of the troops was also an irksome duty, because the soldiers often forced the peasants to supply them with food and clothes. The landowners began to collect the ninth from the peasants. Although the ninth had already been introduced in 1351, it was not regularly collected in Transylvania. The noblemen also made attempts to hinder the free movement of their serfs. The increasing taxes and the new burdens stirred up the commoners. The Transylvanian Saxons could only overcome their rebellious serfs with the assistance of the vice-voivode, Roland Lépes, in 1417. The united armies of the counties and the Saxon seats crushed the Székely commoners' uprising in 1433. In early 1434, the burghers of Kronstadt had to seek the assistance of the count of the Székelys against the Vlachs who had risen up in Fogaras County. Hussite ideas, especially their egalitarian Taborite version, began to spread among the peasantry in the 1430s. In May 1436, George Lépes urged the inquisitor James of the Marches to come to Transylvania, because Hussite preachers had converted many people to their faith in his diocese. Peasant war Bishop Lépes's actions In order to tackle financial burdens resulting from the Hussite wars and military campaigns against the Ottoman Empire, Sigismund of Luxemburg put lower value silver coins into circulation in 1432. The new pennies were known as quarting because they contained only a quarter of the silver content of the old currency. Bishop Lépes, who knew that pennies of higher value would again be minted in a few years, suspended the collection of the tithe in 1434. After the valuable coins were issued, Lépes demanded the tithe for the previous years in one sum. Historians estimate that the peasant families were required to pay six to nine gold florins, although the value of an average peasant lot was only about 40 florins. Most