ABSTRACT
Crespin's concern with the Vaudois was both relatively slight, and extremely well-sourced. The Vaudois had always had a strong presence in the Alpine valleys, and had farther-flung branches as well, notably in Calabria. Crespin's early discussions of the Vaudois, particularly in Provence during the 1540s, make repeated reference to deficiencies in their doctrine, and his later work on the alpine communities of the 1550s and 1560s, directly contributed to and borrowed from Lentolo and others, as Gilmont and Balmas have shown. The process of integrating Vaudois beliefs and structures into Reformed patterns was a slow one, but by the late 1550s the efforts of the missionaries and the Vaudois leadership was bearing fruit. Crespin's more general narrative account of the Vaudois of Piedmont first appeared in 1563's Cinquieme Partie, and was included in each of the editions of the Livre des Martyrs which followed. It was based upon at least three histories which had been published early in the 1560s.
