The seeds of the Protestant Reformation are sown throughout Christendom by corruption in the Church, a new understanding of faith, and the blood of martyrs.

SYNOPSIS:

EPISODE 5, SYNOPSIS, SEEDS

The year is 1514, and more seeds are sown for the Protestant Reformation by the blood of martyrs. One of those is Richard Hunne, an English merchant, killed in his prison cell for the sin of having a Lollard Bible written in English and not Latin.

James V, King of Scots, is introduced as a young boy who will become a staunch defender of the Catholic faith. Scottish nobles contest with his mother, Queen Margaret Tudor, for the right to rule as Regents in her stead.

To eliminate competition, John Stewart, Duke of Albany, kills two Scottish nobles who are staunch supporters of Margaret Tudor by having them beheaded.

Henry VIII meets his new daughter, Mary the First, who earns the title Bloody Mary in future episodes for her murder of countless Protestants. Henry is disappointed to have a girl.

At Wittenberg University in Saxony, Martin Luther and associate, Andreas Karlstadt, begin their roles as Doctors of Theology.

While there, Martin discovers the writing of Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples, a prominent professor of theology at the Sorbonne. From Lefèvre, Martin adopts the primary slogans of the Reformation, ‘Sola Scriptura,’ ‘Sola Fide,’ and ‘Sola Gratia.’

In France, future reformer Guillaume Farel begins his studies under the tutelage of Lefèvre. The latter is arrested by Noël Béda, dean of the Sorbonne, at Farel’s first day of class.

Marguerite d’Alençon, sister of the King of France, becomes a staunch defender of Lefèvre and the Reformation and must intervene for Lefèvre to save him from certain death.

Other important reformers make their appearance in Seeds, such as Swedish reformer, Olaus Petri, who attends Wittenberg and meets Martin Luther. Petri contributes to an important class lesson on the real meaning of penance and how the Latin Vulgate mistranslates the word from the Greek.

While at Wittenberg, Martin Luther finally makes peace with God. He makes an important Biblical discovery, which ushers him through the gate of heaven, into the Kingdom of God, and becomes the primary theology that forms the backbone of the Reformation, “The righteous shall live by faith.”