He studied at Heidelberg, at Tübingen, and in Italy, where he became versed in Latin.
He was a pupil of Rudolph von Langen. Vallum humanitatis, sive Humaniorum litterarum contra obrectatores vindiciae (1518) was in effect a manifesto for the humanist movement of the time. He moved back to Munster and the prince-bishop Heinrich von Schwarzburg, but decided to become a jurist and went to study in Cologne.
He was dismissed from teaching posts, in Leipzig (1505) and Erfurt (1507).
He became involved in controversy in 1509 around Ortwin, a conservative figure of the older generation, with whom he had clashed over textbooks, wanting to use Aelius Donatus. He has been thought to be one of the authors of the Epistolae Obscurorum Virorum, an anonymous work that includes satirical attacks on Ortwin.
But this is not now generally agreed. In addition to Vallum Humanitatis, a defense of humanistic studies, he wrote three books of epigrams, and other works.