Martin Becanus


Martinus Becanus was a Dutch-born Jesuit priest, known as a theologian and controversialist.

Life

He was born Maarten Schellekens in Hilvarenbeek in North Brabant; Schellekens is a patronymic and he adopted a Latinized form of the surname Van Beek. He entered the Society of Jesus on 22 March 1583, and taught Theology for twenty-two years at Würzburg, Mainz, and Vienna.
He died in Vienna, where he was the confessor to the Emperor Ferdinand II.

Works

A first class controversialist and prolific writer Becanus is the author of some 37 books, most of them works of polemics.
Among numerous other works was his Summa Theologiae Scholasticae.