 Krell's religious views were Calvinistic or Crypto-Calvinistic, and both before and after his appointment as chancellor in 1589 he sought to advance his own religious views at the expense of the reigning Lutheran Orthodoxy which was the sanctioned religion of Electorate of Saxony.Calvinists were appointed to many important ecclesiastical and educational offices; a translation of the Bible with Calvinistic annotations was published; and Krell took other measures to attain his end.In foreign politics, also, he sought to change the traditional policy of Saxony of close collaboration with the Habsburg emperors, acting in unison with John Casimir, regent of the Electorate of the Palatinate, and reaching out to Henry IV of France and Elizabeth I of England.