CIANFORAN (CHAMFORANS), Synod of. — When, in the first half of the 16th century, the Protestant movement arose in Germany and Switzerland, the Waldenses (v.), already separated for centuries from the Catholic Church, sent some of their "barba," or ministers, to those countries so that they might meet with the Protestant leaders. In 1530 these messengers visited William Farel (1489-1565) at Neuchâtel, John Œcolampadius (1482-1531) at Basel, and Martin Bucer (1491-1551) at Strasbourg.
Upon their return home, the Waldensian Synod of 1531 heard their reports and decided to invite some of the reformers from neighboring Switzerland to attend the Synod of 1532. Indeed, besides Farel, Anthony Saunier and Peter Robert, called Olivetan, the future translator of the Bible into French, came. At the great Synod of C. (12 Sept. 1532), held near Angrogna, after a long and lively discussion they persuaded the Waldenses to accept the new doctrines, namely, predestination, the uselessness of good works for justification, free confession, clerical marriage, and only two Sacraments. At the Synod of Pral the following year, 1533, despite the objections of some who were not favorable to the change, the Protestant doctrines were definitively adopted. With this decision the Waldenses not only increased their divergence from the Catholic Church but—as the writer Kartunen observes—bound themselves to a city (Geneva) hostile to the House of Savoy, and this was no small cause of the difficulties and struggles they later had with their legitimate sovereigns.