Peucer's father, Gregor, was trusted with certain tasks from the Bautzen elite regarding the city quarters between the town council and burghers.
This education system was excelling under the Joachim Knemiander administration, originating from the Upper Lusatian town which, is now present day Poland.
After graduation Peucer quickly became a professor at the University of Wittenberg, replacing Erasmus Reinhold following his death in 1553.
The idea is that astrology fits perfectly into the teleological worldview in which it shows the critical work of God's creation, the stars being a secondary asset.
The main goal was to gain followers of the Lutheran church, this quickly created some suspicion that there was a connection with Peucer and Calvinism.
[10] The Protestant astrologers of the time held the belief that before the original sin, nature did not deviate from its expected laws.
[4] The accepted view for science and philosophy was to follow an Aristotilian approach, which includes using empirical evidence and reason to come to conclusions.
Specifically, Peucer thought that both of these entities could affect and even explain some serious astrological phenomena such as comets in the atmosphere to produce many particular effects that he had no other explanation for.
This can be seen in his belief of angels and demons as Peucer thought that these entities, for reasons both good and bad, could be the source of some phenomena such earthquakes.
Because of Peucer's belief that only God can actually go against nature, lesser powers, like the devil, were able to cause rare meteorological events.
[4] It could These rare events were not technically against nature; they held more meaning than everyday normal weather, but were not placed on the same level as miracles.
Peucer's Christianity pressured him to teach a geocentric model of the universe, which led him to the common and comfortable theory of Ptolemy.
[13] Because Peucer held such a high power position in education, he was also able to hire chairmen that were not Orthodox Lutherans, they were known as Philippists (followers of Philip Melanchthon).
It built upon Melancthon's work, in the form of relatively simple figures for the ease of comprehension for its intended audience; however, mathematics calculations in the latter part of the book were far above the capability of the average Wittenberg student.
[16][failed verification] Another interesting addition to the 1554 version is the inclusion of two works that describe the Holy Land by Burchard of Mount Sion and an explanation of Biblical place names.
[17] The religious tie-in arises from Peucer's belief that the ability of man to calculate the nature of the earth reveals the "action of Divine Providence in the world.
"[15][18] In the first chapter, this point is hammered home as it implies that history must be inferred or understood in terms of its Christian context.
This highlights many problems including the need for an accurate depiction of time and coordination between many people in different places.
He then goes on to describe the methods in depth for calculating the distance between two fixed points using the equators, poles, meridians, longitude, and latitude to create an imaginary triangle.
In the end of his book essentially suggested to students that they might reject his overly complicated methods and use the pre-established way of calculating distances to better suit their needs.
[15] This in turn allowed classes that would use his work the option to stop at the foundational level of mathematics mentioned in the beginning or to go on to the latter part of the book which has math compared to that of a master's degree or higher in terms of complexity.
[16][failed verification] Caspar Peucer studied a variety of topics throughout his life, but some of his most recognized work are his contributions to the arts and sciences, particularly astrology and medicine.
[19] Despite the differences in the view of the world system, like Copernicus, Peucer used the significance of light and optics as a means of explaining natural law.
The pupils viewed Melanchthon as one of the only scholars who could actually properly interpret the divine providence and celestial writing through his knowledge of astrology.
In 1588, Brahe wrote a letter to Peucer addressing where he felt Ptolemy fell short, and how the Copernican system provided a resolution for the shortcomings.
[24] Brahe and Peucer have a history of exchanges, where they share their views on particular aspects of natural philosophy, but it is unclear if they actually contributed to or worked together to learn more about the cosmos.