Peder Winstrup was a student at the University of Jena. He was one of Johann Gerhard's favorite pupils. After the Americans of Grantville repelled a mercenary attack on Jena, Winstrup was among the younger voices in favor of more interaction with the up-timers. They were opposed by a stringent group of theologians who saw the Americans as "Satanic" in origins. When the Americans offered an exchange of knowledge between Grantville and Jena, furious debate erupted among faculty and students. Winstrup argued that any knowledge about the world would lead to a better understanding of God: as the Bible stated that God's mercy spanned the world, if one knew exactly how big the world was, one would know more about God. Winstrup's argument provoked one of the more conservative theologians, Marcus G