In after years he said: "Non ego nunc, ut anteà, ætatem meam in nugis (ne quid gravius dicam) Oxonii apud homines hæreseos crimine obstrictos, neque in fabulis domi apud homines nulla politiori literatura excultos, otiosè, turpiter, nequiter contererem".
Leaving his country and parents on account of his attachment to the Roman Catholic religion, he went in 1572 to the English College at Douai, where he became professor of rhetoric, and was ordained priest in 1574.
He was also nominated one of the privy council to William, duke of Bavaria; but, incurring that prince's displeasure, he retired for a time to Paris.
A year or two later he returned to Germany, and was made canon of Breslau in Silesia, and afterwards secretary for the Latin tongue to the Archduke Ferdinand, who had an especial esteem for him.
His friend Pits describes him as "vir in litteris politioribus et philosophia plus quam vulgariter doctus, et in familiari congressu satis superque facetus".