Chamforans, Synod of

CHAMFORANS, SYNOD OF. - When, in the first half of the 16th century, the Protestant movement arose in Germany and Switzerland, the Waldensians (v.), who had already been separated from the Catholic Church for centuries, sent some of their "barba," or ministers, to those countries, so that they might confer with the Protestant leaders. In 1530 these messengers visited

William Farel (1489-1565) at Neuchâtel, John Oecolampadius (1482-1531) at Basel, and Martin Bucer (1491-1551) at Strasbourg.

Having returned home, the Waldensian Synod of 1531 heard their opinions and decided to invite some reformers from neighboring Switzerland to take part in the Synod of 1532. There came in fact, besides Farel, Antoine Saunier and Pierre Robert, called Olivetan, the future translator of the Bible into French, who at the great Synod of C. (Sept. 12, 1532), a place near Angrogna, after a long and lively discussion persuaded the Waldensians to accept the new doctrines, namely predestination, the uselessness of good works for justification, free confession, the marriage of clerics, and only two Sacraments. At the Synod of Pral in 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 Waldensians not only increased their divergences in the face of the Catholic Church, but - as the writer Karttunen observes - they allied themselves with a city (Geneva) hostile to the House of Savoy, and this was no small cause of the difficulties and struggles that they later had with their legitimate sovereigns.

Camillo Crivelli