Having taken priest's orders, he held in 1524 a cure in the neighbourhood of Augsburg, but soon (1525) went over to the Reformed party at Nuremberg and became preacher at Gustenfelden.
The editio princeps of the original appeared at Augsburg (1471); that of Haverkamp (Leiden, 1738 and 1767) has now been superseded by C. Zangemeister, who has edited the Hist.
It refused to subscribe the Augsburg Recess, but at the same time it was not till 1536 that it was persuaded to join the League of Schmalkalden.
At length the hostility of the princes was overcome, and in December 1282 Rudolph invested his sons Albert and Rudolph with the duchies of Austria and Styria at Augsburg, and so laid the foundations of the greatness of the house of Habsburg.
In 1869 and 1871 he was president of the first and second Jewish Synods at Leipzig and Augsburg.