 Having determined to embrace the clerical state, he entered the ecclesiastical seminary at Freiburg in the autumn of 1832, and in August, 1833, was ordained to the priesthood.During the following eight years he was engaged in parochial work, being curate first at Rothenfels in the Murgthal, and from June, 1835, at Neusatz, in the district of Bühl.In the autumn of 1841 he was appointed instructor in religion at the gymnasium of Bruchsal, and on 1 March 1843, teacher of moral and pastoral theology at the theological college of Freiburg.