After earning his living for many years as a private tutor for wealthy families, he became a professor of poetry at the University of Königsberg in 1639. His occasional poetry, which commemorated the births, deaths, and marriages of the Königsberg bourgeoisie, is characterized by a sweet simplicity and musicality. He went beyond this conventional manner, however, in poems with elements from folk songs and in religious poetry; these verses can be seen to anticipate the hymns of Paul Gerhardt, generally considered the greatest of the German hymnists.