He was against the Leipzig Interim (1548) with its compromise on some Catholic usages, and was involved in controversies and quarrels; with Georgius Merula, against whom he maintained the need of exorcism in baptism; with Osiander's adherents in the matter of justification; with his colleague, Nicholas von Amsdorf, to whom he had resigned the Eisenach superintendency; with Flacius Illyricus, and others.
Having graduated and begun to give lectures at Jena in 1605, he in 1606 accepted the invitation of John Casimir, duke of Coburg, to the superintendency of Heldburg and mastership of the gymnasium; soon afterwards he became general superintendent of the duchy, in which capacity he was engaged in the practical work of ecclesiastical organization until 1616, when he became theological professor at Jena, where the remainder of his life was spent.
He thereupon resigned the superintendency, and returned to St Louis, parting with the governor of the state and his colleagues in the school with regret and mutual esteem..
In 1819 he was nominated professor extraordinarius of theology and pastor of Altstadt in Konigsberg, and in 1820 received a superintendency in that city.
In 1888, however, the state superintendency was abolished, and county superintendencies were created instead, the legislature thus returning, in a measure, to the old system of local control.
