Background
Böcken was born in Munich, in Bavaria.
Böcken was born in Munich, in Bavaria.
He entered the Order of Saint Benedict at an early age, made his religious profession at the Abbey of Saint Peter, Salzburg, in 1706, and was ordained to the priesthood in 1713. Having been made a Doctor of Canon and Civil Law (1715), he was sent to Rome and on his return was chosen, in 1721, to succeed Benedict Schmier, as professor of canon law at the Benedictine University of Salzburg, where he remained for a period of twenty years. He was also attached to the theological faculties of Salzburg and Fulda, was secretary of the university, and an ecclesiastical councillor of four successive archbishops in the See of Salzburg and of the Prince-Abbot of Fulda.
Eventually he appears to have incurred the displeasure of Archbishop Leopold of Salzburg, and in consequence of repeated friction resigned his position in 1741.
He was then made pastor of Dornbach, a suburb of Vienna, and, two years later, superior of Maria-Plain near Salzburg, where he spent the last nine years of his life as confessor to the many pilgrims. Böcken held rather extreme views on the subject of the veneration due the saints.
He maintained that the special veneration and invocation of the saints, particularly of the Blessed Virgin Mary, is absolutely necessary for salvation. The sermon appeared also in print, with annotations wherein Böcken characterized as erroneous the contrary opinion of Muratori.
A sermon which he preached on this subject in 1740 precipitated an acrid discussion at the university between the members of the "Old School" and the "New School" of theology, between the Sycophantae and the Illuminati as they were called.