(1770-1827) The great musician was reared a Catholic but quit the Church and adopted Goethe's Pantheism. Although he composed a Catholic mass (Missa solemnis) which an authority described as "perhaps the grandest piece of musical expression which art possesses" he remained a Pantheist to the end. It is piquant that the musical expert who thus appreciates his mass, Sir G. Macfarren, describes him as a 'freethinker'. Beethoven's most authoritative biographers are clear about his views on religion.

When he was dying he yielded to the pressure of Catholic friends and let a priest administer his sacraments, but it is admitted that when the priest left the room he said, in the Latin words of the ancient Roman theater "Applaud, my friends, the comedy is over." One biographer very implausibly argues that he meant the comedy of his life. During the years of his full inspiration he had little religious feeling. When Felix Moscheles once scribbled on a manuscript "With God's help," Beethoven wrote "Man help thyself."