Becan, Martin

BECAN (VERBEECK, VAN DER BEECK), MARTIN: Jesuit; b. at Hilvarenbeeck (35 m. n.e. of Antwerp), in Brabant, Jan. 6, 1563; d. in Vienna Jan. 24, 1624. He joined the Jesuits in 1583; taught philosophy and theology at schools of the order in Cologne, Würzburg, Mainz, and Vienna; and became confessor to the emperor Ferdinand II in 1620. He engaged in controversy with Lutherans, Calvinists and Anabaptists, and in particular attacked the Church of England. In his Controversia Anglicana de Potestate pontificis et regis (Mainz, 1613) he defended the morality of assassinating a heretic king; and in Quæstiones de fide hæreticis servanda (1609) he declared that no promise or oath given to a heretic was binding. The former work was condemned at Rome. His collected works were published in two volumes at Mainz, 1630–31.