On this date in 1770, composer Ludwig van Beethoven was born in Bonn, Germany, into a Catholic family. After working as an assistant organist, he studied in Vienna under Haydn. Beethoven was an admirer of Goethe, who rejected Christianity in favor of a pantheistic viewpoint. When his friend Moscheles returned a manuscript to Beethoven with the words “With God’s help” on it, Beethoven reportedly wrote instead, “Man, help thyself.” (Cited in A Biographical Dictionary of Modern Rationalists by Joseph McCabe, 1920.)

His biographer and friend Anton Schindler wrote that Beethoven was “inclined to Deism.” Although he received Catholic ministrations at the insistence of religious friends, Beethoven reportedly said in Latin after the priest left, “Applaud, friends; the comedy is over.” (Beethoven’s Brevier, Ludwig Noll, 1870.) In the Imperial Dictionary of Universal Biography (1857), George Macfarren described Beethoven as a “free-thinker.” D. 1827.