gave Augustus's funeral oration after the latter's death in August 1586. His successor, Christian I, tended towards Calvinism and so this began to prevail. Christian freed pastors and teaching staff from their obligation to sign the Formula of Concord at their ordination. Considered to be the main representative of the Lutheran concord under Augustus, Leyser was increasingly exposed to the hostility of Nikolaus Krells and Johann Major, whose influence in the university and Konsistorialangelegenheiten was rising. Leyser was so incensed by this hostility that he warned his students off studying for a master's degree under Major. When the Calvinist Matthias Wesenbeck was buried in the Schlosskirche at the feet of Martin Luther, Leyser preached the funeral sermon, in which he claimed that Wesenbeck had renounced Calvinism on his deathbed and died a good Lutheran. This provoked such an uproar that Leyser had to move to Brunswick. He died in Dresden. References Bibliography Realenzyklopädie für protestantische Theologie und Kirche. Band 11. 3. Ausgabe. Seite 431. Walter Friedensburg: Geschichte der Universität Wittenberg. 1917. Wolfgang Sommer: Die Stellung lutherischer Hofprediger im Herausbildungsprozeß Frühmoderner Staatlichkeit und Gesellschaft. In: Zeitschrift für Kirchengeschichte. Band 106/3, 1995, Seite 313–328. Wittenberger Gelehrtenstammbuch. Herausgeber Historisches Museum Berlin, Mitteldeutscher Verlag, Halle 1999, , Seite 327. Wolfgang Sommer: Politik, Theologie und Frömmigkeit im Luthertum der frühen Neuzeit ... Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1999, . Wolfgang Sommer: Die lutherischen Hofprediger in Dresden: Grundzüge ihrer Geschichte ... Steiner, Stuttgart 2006, . Christian Peters: Polykarp Leyser in Wittenberg. In: Irene Dingel and Günther Wartenberg (ed.): Die Theologische Fakultät Wittenberg 1502 bis 1602. Evangelische Verlagsanstalt, Leipzig 2002, . Fritz Roth: Restlose Auswertungen von Leichenpredigten und Personalschriften für genealogische und kulturhistorische Zwecke. Bd. 1, S. 28, R 55 External links Books on and by Polykarp Leyser the Elder in the catalogue of the Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Academic staff of the University of Wittenberg German Lutheran theologians 1552 births 1610 deaths 17th-century German Lutheran clergy 16th-century German Protestant theologians German male non-fiction writers 16th-century German male writers 16th-century German Lutheran clergy