His term as Archbishop was marked by the disturbances attendant on the Dutch Revolt.

On 23 February 1580, the city council of Brussels (then Calvinist) ordered him, as vicar general of the diocese, to publish a decree suppressing feastdays of saints, which he refused to do.

After other clashes with the civic authorities, he spent three months in prison.

On 8 November 1585, the remnants of the relics of St Rumbold of Mechelen, saved from the desecration of the cathedral during the period of Calvinist rule, were solemnly deposited in the saint's tomb in the cathedral.

[1] In 1588 he had the Pastorale Mechliniense, commissioned from the theologians of Leuven University, published by Christophe Plantin in Antwerp.