The ambitions of King Francis I of France with regard to the succession to the Duchy of Milan brought warfare into Savoy and Piedmont.

The Emperor Charles V was likewise determined to retain the Duchy of Milan, and his strategy involved the occupation of Provence, making the mountain passes of Savoy of great military importance.

They spent the Spring of 1629 in Susa, conducting a siege of Pinerolo, but, as it happened, the King fell deathly ill and had to withdraw.

[2] Pinerolo was officially handed over to France in 1631 with the treaty of Cherasco, which recognized Victor Amadeus I as the new Duke of Savoy, and was not freed until 1696.

On 12 October 1685 the King sent instructions to his ambassador in Turin, the Marquis d'Arcy, to issue the appropriate orders to the Seigneur d'Harleville, the royal agent in Pinerolo, to engage in efforts to convert the inhabitants of the nine valleys in which the Waldensians were permitted to live.

In 1743, Carlo Emanuele III established in Pinerolo the Ospizio dei Catecumeni, an institute for those who were converting to the Catholic faith.

[5] The diocese of Pinerolo was established by Pope Benedict XIV on 23 December 1748, by the bull In sacrosancta, at the request of King Charles Emmanuel III of Sardinia, on Piemontese territories split off from its Metropolitan, the Archdiocese of Torino.

It was founded in 1064 by Adelaide, Princess of Susa, in Abbadia Alpina, less than two miles west of Pinerolo, which was part of the Marca di Torino (March of Turin).

The Badia of Santa Maria was closed, and the church of San Francesco, which was in bad condition, was sold at public auction in 1802, and razed to the ground; its tombs, including that of Duke Carlo I of Savoy, were despoiled.

[18] After the defeat of Napoleon and the return of Pope Pius VII from his French imprisonment, the Congress of Vienna promoted the restoration of the Kingdom of Sardinia and the Papal States (with some exceptions) to their rightful owners.

In both cases the chaos caused by the French occupation had to be undone, and both Victor Emanuel I and Pius VII needed support in asserting their legitimacy and authority.

Through Count Giuseppe Barbaroux, the envoy of the King, and Cardinal Enrico Consalvi, the Papal Secretary of State, it was agreed that a reorganization of the Church in the Piedmont was essential.

[20] In Pinerolo the proclamation was carried out by Pietro Antonio Cirio, Canon of the Cathedral Chapter of Turin and Subdelegatus Apostolicus, on 9 November 1817.

The conversion of the Waldenses was promoted, and warnings were issued about unauthorized Italian translations of the Bible, containing controversial passages and interpretations.