BECANUS, MARTINUS. - Theologian and Jesuit controversialist, b. 6 Jan. 1563 at Hilvarenbeek (Holland; whence he took his name; the family name would have been Schellekens), d. at Vienna 24 Jan. 1624. Already a pupil of the college at Cologne, from which he emerged as magister artium, he entered on 22 March 1583 the novitiate of the Rhenish province of the Society of Jesus. After completing his theological training, he was assigned to teaching philosophy at Cologne (1590-93) and then theology for more than two decades, first at Cologne, then at Würzburg, Mainz, and finally at Vienna (1614-19). On account of his health, he had to leave the chair and move to Mainz; he was soon, however, summoned to the court at Vienna to succeed Fr. Bartholomew Villery as confessor to Ferdinand II. As counsellor to Ferdinand, B. worked at the papal court to justify the sovereign’s actions, which were constrained by enormous difficulties. B. himself was involved (1620) in the question of tolerance toward the Protestants of Austria, having, with a council of theologians, given an opinion favourable, given the circumstances, to the application of the Augsburg Confession in Austria, which was shortly after granted by the emperor.
But B.’s name remains chiefly linked to the history of theology and religious controversy. He wrote much and was widely read, as is shown by the numerous editions of some of his books, but he was also much opposed, especially by Calvinists, whom he saw at that time as the most urgent danger to the Church. Some of the many anti-Calvinist pamphlets that issued from his pen were collected into a volume: *Enchiridion variarum disputationum... contra Calvinistas* (Mainz 1606). In this controversy, he also took pains to defend the Church and the Society of Jesus from the charge of intolerance and perjury toward heretics: *De fide haereticis praestanda* (ibid. 1608). The *Aphorismi doctrinae Calvinistarum* (ibid. 1608) gave occasion to Sabatier to accuse him, though wrongly, of a false citation of Calvin. He also took part in the controversy between James I of England and St. Robert Bellarmine on the limits of royal and papal power: *Serenissimi Iacobi Angliae apologiae... vetustatis* (ibid. 1609); *Refutatio testurae* (ibid. 1610); *Controversia anglicana de potestate regis et pontificis* (ibid. 1612); the last-named work was placed on the Index (13 Jan. 1613) “donec corrigatur,” not for doctrinal reasons but out of fear of complications with the French Parliaments.
B.’s major works are: *Theologia scholastica* (4 vols., ibid. 1612-14), distinguished by clarity of exposition and forcefulness of language; in doctrine he follows Suárez, but without servility; *Manuale controversiarum* (Würzburg 1623), which had many editions and was also translated. The success of this work was, however, surpassed by the *Compendium manualis controversiarum* published the same year at Mainz and commended by St. Vincent de Paul. That he had struck the right note may be inferred from the number of *Antibeccanus* works that Protestants produced against him. In a quite different genre, another of B.’s writings met with a favour attested by more than thirty editions: *Analogia veteris ac novi testamenti* (Mainz 1620); it was reprinted in the *Cursus scripturae sacrae* of Migne (II, Paris 1840, cols. 9-698).