is said that once he narrowly escaped excommunication for having said
that Jesus was only a poor human being and a Jew. Haydn, ingenuously
pious, is reported to have called Beethoven an atheist.

He consented to the calling in of a priest on his death-bed.
Eye-witnesses testify that the customary function was performed most
impressively and edifyingly and that Beethoven expressed his thanks
to the officiating priest with heartiness. After he had left the room
Beethoven said to his friends: "Plaudite, amici, comoedia finita est,"
the phrase with which antique dramas were concluded. From this fact
the statement has been made that Beethoven wished to characterize the
sacrament of extreme unction as a comedy. This is contradicted, however,
by his conduct during its administration. It is more probable that he
wished to designate his life as a drama; in this sense, at any rate, the
words were accepted by his friends. Schindler says emphatically: "The
last days were in all respects remarkable, and he looked forward to
death with truly Socratic wisdom and peace of mind."

[I append a description of the death scene as I found it in the
notebooks of A. W. Thayer which were placed in my hands for examination
after the death of Beethoven's greatest biographer in 1897:

"June 5, 1860, I was in Graz and saw Huttenbrenner (Anselm) who gave me
the following particulars: ...In the winter of 1826-27 his friends wrote
him from Vienna, that if he wished to see Beethoven again alive he must
hurry thither from Graz. He hastened to Vienna, arriving a few
days before Beethoven's death. Early in the afternoon of March 26,
Huttenbrenner went into the dying man's room. He mentioned as persons
whom he saw there, Stephen v. Breuning and Gerhard, Schindler, Telscher
and Carl's mother (this seems to be a mistake, i.e. if Mrs. v. Beethoven
is right). Beethoven had then long been senseless. Telscher began
drawing the dying face of Beethoven. This grated on Breuning's feelings,
and he remonstrated with him, and he put up his papers and left (?).

"Then Breuning and Schindler left to go out to Wohring to select a grave.
(Just after the five--I got this from Breuning himself--when it grew
dark with the sudden storm Gerhard, who had been standing at the window,
ran home to his teacher.)

"Afterward Gerhard v. B. went home, and there remained in the room only
Huttenbrenner and Mrs. van Beethoven. The storm passed over, covering
the Glacis with snow and