The rumor of the Reformation was heard in their valleys, and created a lively emotion amongst them.

One of them determined to go and see what this reformation was; and he returned to his valleys with good news and with pious books.
Regular relations were from that time established between the Reformers of Switzerland, France, and Germany, and the Christian shepherds of these mountains.

Visits were exchanged Farel and Saunier went amongst the Vaudians and conversed with them about their common faith, common in spite of certain differences.

Rustic conferences, composed of the principal landholders, barbas or pastors, and simple members of the faithful, met more than once in the open air under the pines of their mountains.

The Vaudians of Provence had been settled there since the end of the thirteenth century; and in the course of the fourteenth other Vaudians from Dauphiny, and even from Calabria, had come thither to join them.