It is apparent from his subsequently published writings that he was also deeply concerned for the moral condition of the young men sent to him to be educated. Magdeburg was besieged and then destroyed by Catholic armies under Tilly and others in 1630/1631. Historians sometimes contend that the Thirty Years' War was the most destructive event in Europe prior to the twentieth century: the massacre in Magdeburg that followed the surrender of the city may have involved the death of perhaps 20,000 inhabitants. Military destruction was followed, as so often, by plague. Evenius fled with his family to Tallinn where he took over the headship of the newly founded Gymnasium (school). He returned to Germany less than a year later, however. In 1633 he took charge of the Gymnasium (school) in Regensburg. Evenius had been much affected by the destruction of Magdeburg and his writings, which from now on were published in German rather than Latin, disclose the (then widely held) belief that his former home-city's fate had been some sort of a judgement, reflecting God's anger over he conduct of citizens. In 1634 he was summoned to Weimar, accepting an appointment from The future Duke as Schools Advisor ("Kirchen- und Schulrat"). Duke Ernest I would gain a reputation as a practical champion for Lutheranism and an educational pioneer: Sigismund Evenius took part in setting up and expanding a new style of school system, and he also produced the widely distributed (German language) "Ernestine Bible". Evenius believed that the destructive consequences of the Thirty Years' War must be addressed by improvements in education, and although he himself died in 1639, he lived long enough to help create a firm basis for some of those improvements. After his death his influence was if anything more apparent than earlier, as a result of the education reforms successfully enacted by Duke Ernest, the practical extent of whose own authority would be extended through the timely death of an elder brother.