Martin Becanus

Martin Becanus (also Verbeeck, van der Beeck, originally Schellekens, born January 6, 1563 Hilvarenbeeck (North Brabant), † January 24, 1624 in Vienna ) was a Jesuit and besides Robert Bellarmine one of the most controversial theologians of the Counter-Reformation. He was a professor in philosophy and theology.

Life

Becanus began his studies at Three Crown High School in Cologne and graduated from there as Master of Arts. He joined after March 23, 1583 the Society of Jesus and began the study of theology. He then taught for a time even in Cologne philosophy, he became a professor of theology and taught in the following 22 years at the Universities of Würzburg, Mainz, and finally Vienna, where he died. Becanus was 1620-1623 confessor of Ferdinand II and advised him to tolerate the Augsburg Confession in Austria.

Works

His style was clear and dignified, and remarkably free of the bitterness that characterized the rest of the polemical literature of his time. His writings were directed primarily against Calvinism, but also against Lutherans and Anglicans.

Becanus first published writing was 1608 Aphorismi doctrinae Calvinistarum, ex libris eorum, et dictis FACIS collecti, which he wrote in response to John Calvin Aphorismi doctrinae Jesuitarum.
His four-volume magnum opus Summa Theologiae scholasticae ( 1612 ) formed a collection of theological tracts, in the order sorted by the teaching system of the Summa Theologica of Thomas Aquinas, it included a compendium of comments by Francisco Suárez to Thomas Aquinas.
The most important of his controversial writings, the manuals controversiarum huius temporis first appeared in 1623 in Würzburg, Becanus she devoted Emperor Ferdinand II, she experienced after a number of conditions. Content treated Scripture questions of predestination, of free will, the Eucharist and the infallibility of the Church.