 From a family of citizens of Bremen, Grelle's father Volcmar was a member of the city council from 1296 to 1314.Burchard graduated MA at the University of Paris before becoming canon and then from 1310 archdeacon in Rüstringen, where he was able to mediate between the city of Bremen and the inhabitants of Rüstringen then living in Fehde.For a period he represented the archdiocese before the Roman Curia and after archbishop Jens Grand's death Pope John XXII appointed Burchard to the vacant archbishopric on 25 September 1327.