'Thomas Becon', (c1830s). Portrait of English cleric and Protestant reformer Thomas Beccon (or Becon, c1511-1567). As a married priest, Becon was divested of his ecclesiastical positions when the catholic Mary I of England came to the throne in 1553. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London, released, and fled the country. He returned when Elizabeth I came to power, and was made a canon of the Canterbury Cathedral. Becon, from Norfolk, also held the Rectory of Buckland in Hertfordshire for a short time in 1560.