Thomas Beccon

Thomas Beccon or Becon (c. 1511–1567) was an English cleric and Protestant reformer from Norfolk.

Beccon was born c.1511 in Norfolk, England. He entered the University of Cambridge in March 1526-27, probably St John's College. He studied under Hugh Latimer and was ordained in 1533. In 1532 he was admitted a member of the community of the College of St. John the Evangelist, Rushworth - now Rushford.

He was arrested for Protestant preaching and was forced to recant around 1540. He then began to write under the pen name of Theodore Basille. When Edward VI came to the throne in 1547, Beccon was made chaplain to the Lord Protector. He was also presented by the Worshipful Company of Grocers to the living of St Stephen's, Walbrook in the City of London.Thomas Cranmer made him one of the Six Preachers of Canterbury, and a chaplain in Cranmer's own household. He contributed to Cranmer's Homilies.

When Mary I of England came to the throne in 1553, as a married priest, Beccon was divested of his ecclesiastical positions. In August that year he was designated a seditious preacher and imprisoned in the Tower of London. He was released in March the following year and fled the country. He went to Strasbourg and then to Frankfurt, and he taught at Marburg University around 1556–1559. When Elizabeth came to power, he returned to England and was made a canon of the Canterbury Cathedral in 1559.

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