One priority for Duke Ernest "the Confessor" was to pay off the principality's massive debts. When he came to power, all the offices ("Ämter") were pledged, with the exception of the "Schlossvogtei". Consequently his efforts were aimed primarily at the redeeming them again ("Wiedereinlösung"). The necessary tax increases led to serious clashes with the estates. However, Ernest succeeded in asserting himself, and in enforced reduction of the state debt. His second major work was the introduction of the Protestant Reformation. Ernest had himself studied at Wittenberg and had been in contact with Luther's teachers there. Soon after succeeding, he began to reform the church of Lüneburg to Lutheranism. At the 1527 "Landtag" recess, even those nobles who had been hostile declared their support for the new faith. In 1530, Ernest signed the Augsburg Confession, and brought back with him the Augsburg reformer Urbanus Rhegius, who was largely responsible for the implementation of the Reformation in Lüneburg over the succeeding decades.