Thomas Becon (1512-1567): Cambridge Don, Prebend (Canterbury) & English Reformer

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 Thomas Becon (1512–1567) - BIOGRAPHY, MAJOR WORKS AND THEMES, CRITICAL RECEPTION

Thomas Becon is one of those writers whom students of English history and literature invariably see, when they look at the writers at all, as examples of the “incipient Puritanism” of the mid-Tudor dynasty. One of the most prolific of the first generation of English Protestant divines, Becon wrote dozens of works aimed initially at providing devotional guides to the new faith during the 1540s but later added explicitly catechetical and polemical strands to his bow as monarchs and circumstances changed. His collected edition published in the 1560s runs to three long folio volumes. By the time of his death in 1567, he had written over thirty works, not including various collections of prayers and sermons, and several of his more fortunate pieces ran to multiple editions.

Born around 1512 near Thetford, Norfolk, Becon entered Cambridge in 1527 at a time when the university was known for its Lutheran leanings. He appears to have been turned to the new learning by Hugh Latimer, with whom he is often compared, with some justification: both were homilists rather than theologians, and both were tremendously popular. After he left Cambridge with his B.A. in 1531, he joined the community of religious scholars at the College of St. John Evangelist in Rushworth, close to his home, and was there ordained priest in 1533. He seems to have left before the house ascribed to the oath acknowledging the royal supremacy in 1534, for his signature is not among the members who affirmed the schism. By 1538 Becon had attracted the patronage of Thomas Lord Wentworth of Nettlestead (who helped bring John Bale into the Protestant fold) and was plying the circuit between Norwich and London as an intinerant preacher. The conservative backlash in 1540 forced him into the first of his two recantations, and he retreated to the relative security of layman’s clothing and pseudonymous publication, which he left only when Henry VIII died. Three years before his books were officially condemned in 1546, he was forced to cut them up in his second recantation at Paul’s Cross. From that time until Edward VI’s accession, Becon once again became itinerant—this time drifting among households of Protestant gentry in the Midlands, educating children and servants and writing.

After Edward’s accession, Becon attracted the patronage of Edward Seymour, the lord protector, and left his rural retreats for St. Stephen’s Walbrook in London. His theology, which formerly had been Lutheran and rather circumspect concerning the Eucharist, calcified into Zwinglianism—perhaps as a result of his exposure to the daunting intellectual household of the protector whose chaplain he had become. His writings, now under his real name, make explicit and predictable connections between Reformed theology and the acute social problems then current. Perhaps as a result of his many years on foot among the rural laborers, Becon’s Edwardine works voice a guarded but laudable sympathy for the poor.

Under Mary, Becon spent some time in the Tower, then fled abroad. He adopted a moderate stance in the theological tussles between Cox’s moderation and the Calvinism of John Knox* that divided the English exiles on the Continent. Eventually, in 1556, Becon found himself in a familiar position as domestic tutor to the household of Philip, Langrave of Hesse. He continued to write exhortatory works for an English audience as well as undistinguished Latin polemics for a Continental readership, but his pen was sharpened by the company he kept—notably John Foxe and John Bale. Convinced that Mary’s persecutions were proof of God’s direct and unmistakable punishment for the failure of the Reformation under Edward, Becon was ready to join the chorus of her champions in proclaiming Elizabeth* as the English Deborah. While many of the more rigorous former exiles were led to Calvinist nonconformism and even active opposition to the Elizabethan settlement, Becon lived out his days after her accession as a minor prebendary in Canterbury, patronized by Matthew Parker, collecting income as a nonresident pastor from his several cures in London and elsewhere.

 

MAJOR WORKS AND THEMES

 

Becon’s works fall most easily into two groups—the homiletic or devotional and the polemical, both of whose margins bristle with scriptural references. He also compiled and published lists of Protestant proof-texts and “commonplaces,” translated Continental Protestant authors into English, and composed lengthy prayers and sermons, many of which are found in the various official formularies of Edward VI and Elizabeth. His early devotional pieces include a sequence of dialogues superficially modeled after Erasmus’* Colloquies . The similarities are strictly formal—in his A Christmas Banquet (1542) he draws the setting, the sequence, and even many of the names of the interlocutors from Erasmus’ A Godly Feast (1522). Unfortunately, he passes over the irony, the complexity, the verbal dexterity and, of course, the humanist leaning of his model in favor of a prolix and transparent Protestant catechesis whose rhetorical simplicity and signal distrust of figurative speech are its most prominent features. Becon’s forte as a popularizer perhaps resulted from his homiletic style, and many of his works are really little more than sermons in print.

By the time it became necessary to educate the second generation of English Protestants, distrust in the virtues of a classical curriculum was widespread among the more evangelical. The impact of Becon’s efforts under Elizabeth in shaping the emerging generation has yet to be assessed, but his views on the utility of non-Christian authors are unmistakable. His educational works, such as the later New Catechism (c. 1560), bring the genre of the humanist dialogue to its knees: in it, a father expounds on the repugnance of Ovid and other pagan authors while his six-year-old son cites approvingly (if somewhat hypocritically) Plato’s expulsion of “poets” from his ideal commonwealth. Lucian, whose ironies and ambiguities delighted both More* and Erasmus only a generation earlier, is delated as especially wicked. Becon’s antihumanist attitude is seen most clearly in the introduction to his collected works, published in 1560, where he chastises English schools for teaching “the profane and strange letters of the wanton poets, lying historiographers, prattling sophisters, babbling orators, vain philosophers” (Ayre, vol. 1, p. 10) instead of an exclusive focus on sacred Christian texts as they once did in the golden apostolic age and now do in Germany.

Becon’s polemics, such as his The Monstrous Merchandise of the Romish Bishops and his Displaying of the Popish Mass , reflect the chiliastic theology then popular among returning exiles and draw from the common stock of Protestant diatribe. But they were never as popular as his devotional pieces or his prayers. An inventory of Tudor-Stuart private libraries reveals quite a few works by Becon, including his best-selling contribution to the ars moriendi genre, The Sick Man’s Salve .

CRITICAL RECEPTION

Perhaps the soporific effect of his prose is responsible for the relative absence of scholarly attention to this quintessentially Tudor writer. Yet Becon’s acknowledged popularity suggests we can learn much from a study of his works and the ironies of his career. A creature of the new technology of print, Becon owes his popularity to a medium he exploits yet repeatedly condemns. He imitates writers whose works he censures and whose rhetorical forms he laments but imitates. Like those of his colleagues Bale and Foxe,* Becon’s writings helped shape generations of English piety. Ayre’s edition of his collected works is the only one available, and it deliberately omits several polemical pieces offensive to nineteenth-century decorum. Only one study—a biography—treats his theology in any depth, and it is now badly out of date. With the rising interest in the history of print and its relationship to the popular culture of the English Reformation, attention to Becon’s works promises to be rewarding.


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(Updated 8/12/12) English Reformer: Thomas Becon (1511-1567)

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A few notes on Thomas Becon, an English Reformer.

1511-1512. Graduate of St. John's Cambridge. Mentored by Latimer. BA, 1530. There is a “Life of Becon” by Lupton in “History of Protestant Divines,” London, 1637. Note the use of the term “Protestant,” as early as 1637, a term disabused by liberals, Tractarians, and modernists. Becon found London too hot so he retired to the country, especially in light of Henry’s "6 Articles." He noted that the “boisterous, burning times” included efforts at the foreclosure of the reading of the Bible by the rank and file, something I ("it's all about me") recall in my lifetime with Romanists in the pre-Vatican 2 days and afterwards. This was one of the greatest gifts to the West, the Bible widely distributed, commended, read in services widely and read in homes throughout England and, later, the Americas. After Edward VI was enthroned, Becon became “one of six” preachers at Canterbury. Inferably, Cranmer thought highly of him. Strype, the great 17th century historian of the English Reformation, notes that Becon was well known to Cranmer. Upon Mary’s enthronement, Becon was one of the first to visit “the Tower,” that unhappy place in London. Upon release, he went to Strasburg. He returned after Bess 1’s accession, reacquired a London benefice, and his prebend/stall at Canterbury. In 1566, he preached at S. Paul's, London, during Lent with great acclaim. He also wrote a catechism in 1560. The indubitably Reformed Archbishop, Matthew Parker, supporter of the 2nd Helvetic Confession and supporter and friend of Heinrich Bullinger, was warmly attached to Becon. Becon’s life lasted through four sovereigns: Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary 1 and Elizabeth 1. John Strype’s “Life of Cranmer” contains references to Becon. Allegedly, there is a 4-volume set aside from the Parker edition. Becon's writings are quite clear and lucid. Becon says he renounced Romanism “step by step,” much, we infer, as other Reformers did. He wrote one treatise with a dedicatory to all the notables in Parker’s day: Edmund Grindal, Horn, John Jewel, Edwin Sandys, James Pilkington, Wm. Barlowe, John Scory and more. His writing is a concatenation of biblical texts throughout. Becon is a must-have and must-read. He also rebukes hotheads running into ministry without training and moderation. “They presumed to teach before they have learned.” He speaks of “gelders rather than elders,” “minishers rather than ministers,” “dissipators rather than dispensators,” “destructors rather than instructors,” “deformers rather than informers,” “famous neither in doctrine nor conversation,” and men “to be repelled.” It sounds rather modern. Becon then argues from Scripture, Leo, Jerome and Gregory in behalf of a biblically literate ministry. He gives an extended discussion arguing for a learned ministry including a lengthy review of Bible writers advocating for “doctrine.” He writes well, quickly, and lucidly.

Fortunately, during Mary’s reign, Becon fled to the Continent. Becon’s name, along with others, was posted in June 1555 as a heretic.  Anyone trafficking, having or reading Becon was to be severely punished.   Upon return to England after Elizabeth 1st’s accession, he is listed as a prebend at Canterbury.   Some say he died in 1567, but others 1570.  Becon stressed the “freeness” of the “gift” of salvation, a biblical reality that undercut indulgences and pilgrimages.  He calls Bishops “Superintendents,” a not altogether infelicitous term.  His opening description of the duties of Bishops to feed the flock rather than fleece them and aggrandize themselves and their powers is a wonderful section.   The concatenation of Biblical texts rolls like a Niagara Falls.  The margins abound with references as Becon stresses “Feed my sheep!”  Becon is put off by the accumulation and seeking of ecclesiastical titles, although he calls—with warrant—Timothy and Titus “Bishops.”  As noted earlier, the writing is pellucid and even commanding in quality, content and tone.  He warns against “blind guides, unlearned asses, and ravening wolves,” untrained and uneducated men seeking to enter ministry—a word Americans should have received.  He speaks of the ancient approach to ordination:  a congregation would post names in advance for review, sermons would be preached on “ministry” by other local ministers in advance of the choice and the congregation would elect the Pastor “without albs, copes and chasubles” (pg. 7).   Bishops would then be brought to assist Elders, but the chief thing was that this Pastor was to be chosen by the people for his learning and virtue.  Becon indicates that Cyprian and Origen indicated this procedure. These ministers are to be the “salt of the earth” and “light of the world.”   Becon argues that one does not commend government to a man without experience, learning and virtue;  he cites Jeroboam who appointed priests of a “baser and lower sort.”   The cleric must nourish infants, youths, adults and elders, including many without an acquaintance or instruction in the faith.  He speaks of “true reformed churches in Germany.”  If we may extend on this, every Superintendent, every Pastor, every Elder, every Professor of Church History and every Professor of Practical Theology should read this commendable and articulate section on pastoral ministry.  It’s a classic.  He calls on the Bishops to ensure this kind of pastoral ministry; he then argues for catechesis in the grammar schools also.  He speaks of the proper administration of the sacrament of baptism, opposing the “bone, flesh, and hair” view of the transubstantiations which teach the ignorant to bow to the bread and wine (like Tractarians and other Capernaiticists)—who “box it, pix it, and hang it by a rope.”  The sacrament of the Supper is a “testimony, sign and seal” of God’s grace.  “Pastors,” a term Becon appears to prefer, notes that ministers are “ambassadors” and walking “sermons.”  These few pages ought be required reading at every ordination;  I don’t see how it could be improved.   Do you want, Becon asks, a surgeon to operate full of “botches, diseases and sores?”  Becon also uses the term “Rector” or “Ruler” appointed to draws the sores out of the church and remedy its deficiencies.     

We’ll end here, p. 17.  Enough has been said thus far.

The English Reformers

A brief exchange and suggested inquiries by myself and a friend on FB about the English Reformers.
My friend's name was editted to XXXXX.

XXXXX.  a good, brief, succinct, well-documented and multi-purposed summary is in order beyond Ryle's English Reformers. That is, 10-page summaries of each Reformer, again, with footnotes that are readable, accurate, scholarly, informative, and motivational even--from Cranmer to Hall, across 80 years.  Ryle does a fine job of summarizing 5-6 English Reformers. I'd suggest 10-12, may 15 English Reformers. Something that poor children and high schoolers could digest. Something PhDs would handily use for collegians. Something PhDs would recognize as a definitive summary with suggestive directions for research. Something Mums and Dads--rich and poor--could access, ponder and draw encouragement. The LORD knows well enough our exile.

Monday at 5:40pm ·

Donald Philip Veitch I'd add Joseph Hall in the list noted above.

Monday at 5:40pm ·

 

XXXXXX List of 10: , but he should be included.  Bishop Guest, John Whitgift, Matthew Parker, Bishop Edward Reynolds, Thomas Becon, Nowell, Archbishop Bancroft, John Davenant, Meltebeke, Sheppard, Joseph Hall.