BECANUS, MARTINUS. – Jesuit theologian and controversialist, b. 6 January 1563 at Hilvarenbeek (Netherlands; whence he took his name; his family name was supposedly Schellekens), d. at Vienna on 24 January 1624. Already a student at the college of Cologne, where he graduated 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 teach philosophy at Cologne (1590–93) and then theology for more than two decades, first at Cologne, then at Würzburg and Mainz, and finally at Vienna (1614–19). For health reasons, he had to leave his chair and move to Mainz; he was, however, soon summoned to the court of Vienna to succeed Fr. Bartolomeo Villery as confessor to Ferdinand II. As Ferdinand’s adviser, B. worked at the papal court to justify the sovereign’s actions, undertaken amid enormous difficulties. B. himself was involved (1620) in the question of toleration toward Austria’s Protestants, having, together with a council of theologians, given a favorable opinion, in view of the circumstances, concerning the application of the Augsburg Confession in Austria, which the emperor granted shortly thereafter.
But B.’s name remains above all associated with the history of theology and religious controversy. He wrote extensively and was widely read, as is shown by the numerous editions of some of his books, but he was also much opposed, especially by the Calvinists, in whom he then saw the most urgent danger to the Church. Some of the many anti-Calvinist pamphlets that came from his pen were collected in 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 against the accusation of intolerance and perjury toward non-Catholics: De fide haereticis praestanda (ibid. 1608). The Aphorismi doctrinae Calvinistorum (ibid. 1608) gave Sabatier occasion to accuse him, but wrongly, of falsely citing Calvin. He also took part in the controversy between James I of England and St. Roberto Bellarmino over the limits of royal and papal authority: Serenissimi Iacobi Angliae apologiae... refutatio (ibid. 1609); Refutatio torturae torti... (ibid. 1610); Controversia anglicana de potestate regis et pontificis (ibid. 1612); the latter work was placed on the Index a year later (13 January 1613) “donec corrigatur,” not for doctrinal reasons, but for fear of complications with the French Parliaments.
B.’s major works are: Theologia scholastica (4 vols., ibid. 1612–14), characterized by clarity of exposition and effectiveness of language; in doctrine he follows Suárez, but without servility; Manuale controversiarum (Würzburg 1623), which went through numerous editions and was also translated. The success of this work was, however, surpassed by the Compendium manualis controversiarum, published in the same year at Mainz and also recommended by St. Vincenzo de’ Paoli. That he hit the mark may be concluded from the number of Antibecanus that the Protestants directed against him. In a very different genre, another work by B. met with a success attested by more than thirty editions: Analogia veteris ac novi testamenti (Mainz 1620); it was reprinted in Migne’s Cursus scripturae sacrae (II, Paris 1840, cols. 9–698).
mand II... mit P. M. B. und P. Wilhelm Lamarmaini..., in Archiv f. österr. Geschichte, 54 (1876); B. Duhr, Jesuitenfabeln, 3rd ed., Freiburg im Br. 1899, pp. 144–46, 184–87, 649–51; id., Geschichte der Jesuiten in den Ländern deutscher Zunge, II, 1, ibid. 1913, pp. 452–455; II, pp. 216–25, 365–80 and passim (the most complete); H. Fouqueray, Hist. de la Compagnie de Jésus en France, III, Paris 1922, pp. 301–305. Edmondo Lamalle