At the Gymnasium Munstereifel, he received excellent marks, following which he began his studies in Catholic theology and history at the University of Bonn.
[2] He received his doctorate of philosophy from the University of Bonn in 1846, and in November 1847 he began work as an adjunct professor (German: privatdozent) there, and as a lecturer in the Theological Seminary.
He dedicated himself with great zeal to his instructional duties and understood the dependence and lives of his many students, to whom he was both fatherly friend and adviser.
[2] Initially, his scholarship delved into the early Christian writings, such as his edited epistles of Macarii Aegyptii epistolæ, homiliarum loci, preces, ad fidem Vaticani, Vindobonensium, Berolinensis, which was published in 1853,[4] and translated into several languages (Modern Greek, Latin, French He was also interested in the emerging Marian phenomenon, and his study of the appearances of Mary, published in 1850, explored the 14th-century manuscripts at the Klosterneuburg (German: Neuburg Priory), near Vienna.
November 1583— Februar 1584 remains one of the standard works on the religious strife in the northwestern German states in the late Reformation.