From early in the 16th-century Reformation, Waldensian preachers took an interest in the new movement and approached the Reformers. An extensive conversation took place in autumn 1530 between a barbe called Georges Morel and the Reformers Joannes Oecolampadius of Basel and Martin Bucer of Strasbourg.
At the end of the manuscript preserving a version of their exchanges translated into patois there is a document headed, “Propositions disputed in Angrogna in the year 1532, on the 12th September.” This meeting may be the same as one described in the interrogation of a trainee barbe named Pierre Griot, who said that “great learned men and doctors” were at the barbes’ meeting at the end of August, laymen called Charles and Adam and members of religious orders called Augustin and Thomas. There were debates over how much formal worship was necessary, on ethical issues, and predestination.
In later history, these conversations and debates became a moment when the Waldensians “decided to join” the emerging Reformed churches. The name “Synod of Chanforan” was assigned to this event in 1847, and since 1932 there has been a monument at the supposed site.