ABSTRACT
The German Peasants' War of 1524-26 had been a subject of controversy, particularly amongst Protestants, from its beginning. Although the Peasant's War did not play a major role in Jean Crespin's history of the period, he included several martyrs who had been connected with it in some capacity in his final edition, a short history of the Anabaptists, whom he tied to the uprising, using the figure of Thomas Müntzer as a key link. Crespin included three martyrs from this period in the 1554 and 1555 editions of the Livre des Martyrs, with two of them continuing into the 1564 and 1570 volumes. In 1554 and in 1555, they were introduced with a small header reading: 'This history has been put in writing by (Oecolampadius). The martyrology reveals fears that the war, as well as the actions of the Anabaptists, will affect the perception of the Reformation as a whole, both in their doctrines, and in their rejection of hierarchy.
