Against dangerous and powerful common enemies, several courageous Reformers advocate for change in the Church and change the world instead.

SYNOPSIS:

EPISODE 9, SYNOPSIS, THE MELIORISTS

In 1515, two years before the Reformation officially begins, Huldrych Zwingli, priest and Switzer (Swiss mercenary), fights in the Battle of Marignano, realizes the horribleness of the profession, and vows to end what he calls “blood for gold.”

Three years later, Zwingli accepts a position as priest of Grossmünster Cathedral, largest in Zurich. As its priest, he becomes leader of the Reformation in Switzerland and forerunner of the Protestant Reformed Movement.

Zwingli befriends two women, Katharina von Zimmern, Abbess of Fraumünster Abbey, and Anna Reinhard, who is beautiful and tempting. Both are his strongest reform-minded allies.

Just as Zwingli begins his assignment, a plague strikes Zurich and kills one-third of its population. He survives and draws closer to Katharina, though she is damaged goods. In a vision, he revisits the Battle of Marignano and formulates his reforms.

Father Zwingli debates many opponents to push through his reforms. Some are reform minded, but aberrant, while others are intelligentsia of the Church. He draws major opposition when he tries to end the Mass and the veneration of relics.

Elsewhere, Martin Luther again goes on trial, this time in Leipzig against formidable old foes, demonic as well as human, Cardinal Cajetan, Eck, and Mazzolini. The debate lasts sixteen days, and Martin again escapes assassination.

Marguerite d’Alençon, sister of the King of France, comes to the aid of an elderly French reformer, Jacques Lefèvre d'Étaples. Both vow to reform the Church from within. She also helps a new French reformer, William Farel, and must convince brother Francis to help the Reformation though he is a staunch Catholic.

Marguerite’s help leads to the French translation of the Bible and Greek and Hebrew being taught at the Sorbonne. For the first time she gets to touch, smell, and read a Bible.

Though Luther experiences many spiritual and physical ailments, he still introduces his greatest reform against the Mass, which invites severe denunciations from Rome and other reformers.

Through God’s providence, the Meliorists: Zwingli, Von Zimmern, Luther, and Marguerite d’Alençon change the world.