Christendom. It was in fact the first wave of the intellectual movement which was spreading from Italy to the ruder countries of the West. The whole mental activity of the time seemed concentrated in the group of scholars who gathered around him; the fabric of the canon law and of medieval scholasticism ^\nth the philosophical scepticism which first awoke imder its influence, all trace their origin to Bee" (A Short Hi.story of the English People, I, ii, 3). When we remember how deep and far-reaching has been the influence of its greatest scholar, Anselm, on later theology, we cannot but feel that though the old Abbey may be in ruins the school of Bee still lives on, and all may sit at the feet of its famous masters.
Chronu^on Beccemis (1034-1468), ed. dAchery in Lan- franci Cant. Op. (Paris, 1648). app. 1-32 (an excerpt from an old history of the abbey carrying the story to 1591); also in P. L.. CI,: Gilbert Crispin, Life of Herluin in P. L., Ch, 695 sqq.; MiLo Crispin, ViUe Lanfr. et al. abb. in d'Achery, op. cit., 1 sqq.; 311 sqq. (containing Uves of the next four abbots). Cf. also lives and letters of -Anselm and Lanfranc; Rule. The Life and Times of St. Anselm (London. 1883); Ragey, His- toire de Saint Anselme (Paris. 1SS9). the last two containing full and graphic accounts of the foundation and early history of Bee; PoREE, L'Abbaye du Bee au dix-huitieme siecle (Evreux,
1901). W. H. Kent.
Becan (Verbreck, van der Breck), Martin, controversialist, b. at Hilvarenbeck, Brabant, Holland, 6 January, 1563; d. at Vienna, 24 January, 1624. He entered the Society of Jesus, 22 March, 1583, taught theology for twenty-two years at Wuerzburg, Mainz, and Vienna, and was confessor to Emperor Ferdinand II from 1620 until the time of his death. He possessed a style clear and dignified, and noticeably free from the bitterness which marked the polemical literature of the day. His writings were directed principally against Calvin, Luther, and the Anabaptists; of these, his "Manuale Controversarium," Mainz, 1623, treating of predestination, free will, the Eucharist, and the infallibility of the Church, passed through several editions. For a complete list, see Sommervogel, Bibliothèque de la Compagnie de Jésus" (I, col. 1091-1111), wherein are mentioned by title forty-six volumes. His chief theological work, "Summa Theologiae Scholasticae (4 vols. 4to, Mainz, 1612) is in great part a compendium of Suarez's Commentary on St. Thomas Aquinas. By a decree of the Congregation of the Index, 3 January, 1613, his book "Controversia Anglicana de postestate regis et pontificis" was put on the Index donec corrigatur, not so much to condemn certain exaggerations it contained as to prevent the faculty of theology at Paris from condemning it and at the same time adding some declarations against papal authority. The "Controversia" was corrected and published somewhat later with a dedication to Pope Paul V. Becan, in 1608, published at Mainz, "Aphorismi doctrinae Calvinistarium ex eorum libris, dictis et factis collecti," in reply to Calvin's "Aphorismi doctrinae Jesuitarum." Aphorismus XV, Jesuiti vero qui se maxime nobis opponunt, aut necandi aut si id commode fier non potest, ejiciendi, aut certe mendaciis ac calumniis opprimendi sunt" (The Jesuits, our chief adversaries, ought to be put to death, or if that cannot easily be done, they ought to be banished, or, at any rate, overwhelmed with lies and calumnies), has been misconstrued so as to make it appear than Becan wished to say that Aphorismus XV contained the very words of Calvin. That such was not Becan's intention is clear from the title of the book, "Aphorismi ex eorum libris dictis et factis collecti" and the development shows that the author was only drawing what he considered to be a logical conclusion from the action of the Calvinists of the time. A lengthy discussion about this aphorism was carried on by A. Sabatier in the "Journal de Genève" (26 January, 1896; 10 May, 1896) and the "Revue Chrétienne" (1 March, 1896; 1 June, 1896), and by J. Brucker in the "Etudes" (15 April, and 15 July, 1896).
Sommervogel, Bibliothèque de la c. de J., I, 1091-1111; De Backer, Bibl. des escriv. la c. de J., I, 56; Bruckner, in Dict. de theol. cath., s. v.; Hurter, Nomenclature, I, 293.
Francis D. O'Laughlin
Beccarelli, Gittseppe. See Quietism.
Beccus (Gr. BeicMs), John, Patriarch of Con- stantinople in the second half of the thirteenth century, one of the few Greek ecclesiastics who were sincerely in favour of reunion with the Church of Rome. He was born in the early part of the thir- teenth centurj' in Constantinople, where he joined the ranks of the clergy. His ability, learning, and moral qualities marked him for advancement, and he was soon promoted to the office of chnrlo- phylax. The Patriarch Arsenius (12.55-66) held him in high esteem, and defended him against the emperor's displeasure which he had incurred by suspending a priest who blessed a marriage in the church of an imperial palace without permission. Beccus, however, recovered the imperial favour, and gradually gained the confidence of Jlichael Palaeologus (1259-82). He was selected repeatedly to conduct delicate or difficult negotiations with foreign potentates. His sentiments towards the Christians of Western Europe, or the Latins, were not at all friendly at the beginning. When, after the destruction of the Latin Empire in Constanti- nople, the Emperor Michael Palaeologus conceived the plan of reuniting the Greek and the Latin Churches, the Patriarch Joseph (1268-75) and his chartophylax, Jolm Beccus, were strongly opposed to it. In a meeting of the ecclesiastics of Constan- tinople held about the year 1273, Beccus declared in the presence of the emperor that the Latins were in reality heretics, although they were not called thus. His audacity was punished with imprison- ment. In his enforced retirement Beccus found leisure to study the points of difference between the Greeks and Latins. The emperor, anxious to win him over, sent such writings to him as were favourable to the -liews of the Latin Church, among them the works of Nicephorus Blemmida or Blem- mydes. From the works of Athanasius, CjTil of Alexandria, Ma.ximus the Confessor, and others he learned that the Greek and the Latin Fathers sub- stantially agreed on matters of Christian faith. The only difference was. that while the Latin writ- ers considered the Holy Ghost to proceed from Father and Son, the Greeks preferred to state that He proceeds from the Father through the Son. Once satisfied on this subject, he became actively interested in the work of reunion, and retained these sentiments to the end. Meanwhile the union was happily concluded in the coimcil held at Lyons (1274) and proclaimed at Constantinople (January, 1275). The Patriarch Joseph could not be induced to accept it, and was removed from his office accord- ing to a pre\ious imderstanding. John Beccus was elected in his place. On the 2d of June, Pentecost Sunday, 1275, he received the episcopal consecration.
After his elevation to the patriarchal see one of his main objects was to convince of the lawfulness of the union those of the Greeks who were either partisans of the schism or else had renounced it only in a half-hearted way. In April, 1277, a sjTiod was held in Constantinople, \vhere the union was again approved; a letter was also written to Pope John XXI (1276-77), which acknowledged the papal primacy and the orthodoxy of the Latin doctrine on the Procession of the Holy Ghost. When a faction of the schismatics rebelled against the emperor, John Beccus excommunicated them (July, 1277), while Michael Palieologus defeated their armies. In 1279, Beccus assured the legates of Pope Nicholas III (1277-80), then in Constantinople
