BECANUS, MARTINUS. - Jesuit theologian and controversialist, b. 6 Jan. 1563 at Hilvarenbeek (Holland; whence he took his name; his family name would have been Schellekens), d. at Vienna on 24 Jan. 1624. Already a pupil at the college of Cologne, from which he graduated as magister artium, he entered the novitiate of the Rhenish province of the Society of Jesus on 22 March 1583. Having completed his theological formation, he was assigned to the teaching of philosophy at Cologne (1590-93) and then of theology for more than two decades, first at Cologne, then at Würzburg, Mainz and finally at Vienna (1614-19). For reasons of health, he had to leave the chair and move to Mainz; he was, however, very soon called to the court of Vienna to succeed Fr. Bartolomeo Villery as confessor of Ferdinand II. As Ferdinand's counselor, B. worked at the papal court to justify the conduct of the sovereign, who was obliged to maneuver amid enormous difficulties. B. himself was involved (1620) in the question of tolerance toward the Protestants of Austria, having, with a council of theologians, given a favorable response, given the circumstances, regarding the application of the Augsburg Confession in Austria, granted shortly afterward by the emperor.
But B.'s name remains linked above all to the history of theology and of religious controversy. He wrote much and was much read, as the numerous editions of some of his books prove, but was also much opposed, especially by the Calvinists, in whom he then saw the most urgent danger for the Church. Some of the many anti-Calvinist pamphlets that came from his pen were gathered into a volume: Enchiridion variarum disputationum... contra Calvinistas (Mainz 1606). In this polemic, he was also concerned to defend the Church and the Society of Jesus from the accusation of intolerance and of perjury toward the heterodox: De fide haereticis praestanda (ibid. 1608). The Aphorismi doctrinae Calvinistarum (ibid. 1608) gave Sabatier occasion to accuse him, wrongly, of falsely citing Calvin. He also took part in the polemic between James I of England and St. Robert Bellarmine on the limits of royal and papal power: Serenissimi Iacobi Angliae apologiae... refutatio (ibid. 1609); Refutatio torturae torti... (ibid. 1610); Controversia anglicana de potestate regis et pontificis (ibid. 1612); this last work was struck a year later by the Index (13 Jan. 1613) "donec corrigatur," not for doctrinal reasons, but for fear of complications with the French Parlements.
B.'s major works are: Theologia scholastica (4 vols., ibid. 1612-14), characterized by clarity of exposition and effectiveness of language; in doctrine it follows Suárez, but without servility; Manuale controversiarum (Würzburg 1623), which had numerous editions and was also translated. The success of this work was, however, surpassed by the Compendium manualis controversiarum published the same year at Mainz, recommended also by St. Vincent de Paul. That he hit the mark can be concluded from the number of Antibecanus works that the Protestants set against him. In a quite different genre, another writing of B. met with a favor attested by more than thirty editions: Analogia veteris ac novi testamenti (Mainz 1620); it was taken up again in Migne's Cursus scripturae sacrae (II, Paris 1840, coll. 9-698).
Bibliography9 works
Edmondo Lamalle