After 1654, his having switched mid-career to a position as a high-profile Lutheran pastor, the content and populist approach of Schupp's sermons and of the printed pamphlets which he now started to publish brought him into increasingly acrimonious conflict with Hamburg's (relatively) conservative church establishment.

[6] In 1628 he undertook a lengthy tour educational through southern Germany and the Baltic coastal region[a] According to one source his travels also took in Latvia, Lithuania and Poland, extending also to Copenhagen and Königsberg.

[3] On a number of occasions he was obliged to change his travel plans at short notice, reacting to the dangers presented by the marauding armies and the accompanying plague epidemics that were a constant feature of the on-going war.

Here he may have been imprudently generous with his political views, since in December 1632, following the Landgraf's personal intervention, he was formally and firmly admonished by Johann Heinrich Tonsor, a senior professor at the university.

He should restrict himself to subjects that fell within the existing scope of his students' understanding: he must take care to avoid any questions that might prejudice the standing of the imperial authorities, or touch on the causes and disputes of the war.

[1] Sources differ as to whether it was dissatisfaction with the teaching work in Giessen or the continuing twin impacts of plague and war in Hesse-Darmstadt that drove him, during 1634/35, to team up with the young aristocrat Rudolf Rau von Holzhausen and leave the area and embark on what in effect became a second period as an itinerant scholar, moving first to Cologne and then to what was known at the time as the "Zuiderkwartier" (South Holland).

Although he was impressed by these and by many other eminent academic gentlemen whom he met during his time accompanying Rudolf Rau von Holzhausenin the Dutch Republic, of greater significance was his appreciation at close hand of the mutual tolerance apparent in the relationship between church and state.

[1][4] One surviving indication of the affection and esteem in which he was held by colleagues is a letter dated 12 December 1638 addressed by the entire university to Landgraf Georg II, urging that Schupp's meagre annual salary of 140 gulden should be increased.

The book was almost certainly never completed, but something of its likely tone and content can be inferred from the text of a speech that Schupp delivered in 1638 in which he warmly eulogised the Landgraf, but also vividly described the horrors of the on-going war.

Along with the challenges inherent in the Landgraf's commission, there were times when he was required to add administrative deanery duties to his job portfolio, and on one occasion he also found himself serving as a university Prorector throughout virtually the whole of 1643.

[1][6] Two years later, in 1645, he received from the university his doctorate in Theology: correspondence indicates that it was now intended and assumed both by the Landgraf and by Schupp that he would have the time to conclude his tome on the recent history of Hesse-Darmstadt.

[6] He quickly impressed Landgraf Johann with his combination of efficiency and candour, and during the final three years of the war he increasingly found himself entrusted by his employer with political and diplomatic duties.

[1] Schupp also managed to establish excellent relations with Johan Adler Salvius, Oxenstierna's wily and quick-witted senior colleague at the peace conference, and the man who was seen, both at the time and subsequently, as Queen Christina's de facto personal representative in the negotiations.

For nearly another four months, to his evident annoyance, Schupp was obliged to hang around in Münster while his family remained in Braubach, which for him gave rise to what one source describes as "all sorts of [personal] inconveniences".

It was during a visit to Wismar (which following its military occupation in 1628 had become the administrative centre of Sweden's German possessions, that he made a brief diversion to Hamburg, which at the time was one of the largest and most economically dynamic cities in German-speaking Protestant northern Europe.

His own appeal and reputation, had meanwhile been further enhanced by the favourable reactions of the assembled diplomats to his sermon at the service of thanksgiving, held at Osnabrück on 25 October 1648, following the treaty signings the previous day.

Swedish friends had arranged that he should move to Bremen as "Domprediger" (literally, "cathedral preacher") although the actual duties and responsibilities involved would have been wider than a pedantic interpretation of the title would suggest.

Although Schupp no doubt gave these competing offers proper consideration, he concluded that "for the education of my children and a number of other benefits, it seemed to me that a pastoral role in Hamburg would be better than a grand title somewhere else".

[1] Other publications included "Sendschreiben an einen vornehmen Cavallier" ("Letter to a distinguished cavalier") which he published around the end of May 1657 under the pseudonym "Ambrosius Mellilambius" and "Ein holländisch Pratgen" (very loosely, "Dutch preachings/dialogue") of 21 June 1657, which concerns the conflicts known to English readers as the Anglo-Dutch Wars.

[f] It was on Michaelmas 1657 that Balthasar Schupp found himself facing a "Commission of the Ministry", a panel of senior Lutheran clergy that had been convened in response to the growing disquiet caused by his increasingly challenging complementary career as a published author.

According to the report of the encountered that was produced by the "Senior", Pastor Müller (who had also been sitting as chairman of the commission) Schupp agreed to the first two of these requests, but rejected the third and the fourth, insisting that they would have infringed his freedom.

[1][17] The appearance of these pamphlets was seen by the ministers who had participated in the commission as a declaration of war on the part of Schupp, and a campaign was launched against him which may not have destroyed him factually or in the eyes of history, but which nevertheless sapped his energies and caused him very great aggravation.

There are many instances of savage satire attacking public grievances, such as pennalism (abusive exploitation unequal employer:apprentice/student relations) and idiocies in universities and schools, systems and the hankering after what is new and "strange".

[1] In the aftermath of the war, the aggressive satire of Schupp's later years was part of a broader trend, supported by increased public literacy and a rapid growth in the availability of printing presses.

On the more substantive issue concerning the demands that he should change the way he preached and the contents of his published tracts, he referred his accusers to the record of the commission's hearing from when he had previous appeared on September 29, 1657.

Even if he were reduced to begging on the streets, his sermons and tracts were personal matters that were only answerable to himself and not subject to the jurisdiction of the commission: "es wären eine Sachen supra nostram crepidam".

"Die Krankenwärterin: oder Auslegung des heiligen Vaterunser, wie man es mit armen, einfältigen kranken Leuten beten kann" (loosely, "The nurse, or interpretation of 'The Lord's Prayer' so that you can pray with poor simple people who are ill") was written during Advent in 1657: the first printed versions appeared during 1658.

"Der Bücherdieb gewarnt und ermahnt" ("The book thief admonished and warned") was the unfriendly dedication appearing at the front of an edition of the tract dated 14 March 1658 which was apparently intended for distribution at that year's Frankfurt Easter Fair.

[21] He also prepared a third refutation text in response to "Der Bücherdieb Antenor", under the title "Prüfung des Geistes Nectarii Butyrolambii" (loosely, "Critical review of the spirit of Nectarius Butyrolambius").

In it the author, identified as Master Bernhard Schmid, produced a systematic refutation of "Freund in der Noth"[18] References also appear to a third opponent who had printed a tract in Leipzig, this time attacking "Calender".