He was involved in the debate over the ordaining of French rabbis in his time, and some have attribute to him the founding of modern Ashkenazi semicha.
[2] It was said that he brought to Vienna "all the sources of the religion and customs" of the Rhineland,[3] and this move symbolized the transfer of the center of Ashkenazi Torah culture from Ashkenaz to Austria for generations to come.
However, a different student of Mattitiah's, Yeshayah ben Abba Mari who served as rabbi in Savoy contested this.
Yohanan, though, turned to Isaac ben Sheshet, who argued that Meir's authority to make such decrees was limited to Ashkenaz.
This title is first recorded in the French ordination dispute, suggesting that it was founded by Meir, and this was the accepted scholarly opinion in the past.