He came from a peasant family and experienced a youth shaped by military turmoil during the Smalcaldic War, with the siege of Gotha by the Elector Augustus of Saxony.
A volume in the series of his publications, Briefe hervorragender Männer der Reformationszeit (Schmalkalden 1598) contains correspondence with prominent reformers including Luther and Caspar Cruciger.
Of his hymns, the song "In dir ist Freude in allem Leide" (published in 1598) on a melody by Giovanni Giacomo Gastoldi is in the Protestant hymnal Evangelisches Gesangbuch as EG 398.
Johann Sebastian Bach wrote in 1724 the fourth chorale cantata of his second annual cycle, Ach Herr, mich armen Sünder, BWV 135, on a hymn by Schneegass.
For Christmas of that year, Bach composed a chorale cantata Das neugeborne Kindelein, BWV 122, on a hymn with text and probably also the tune by Schneegass.