From historical evidence, today’s scholars know that Beethoven did not attend Mass regularly, and from that they inferred that he was not an orthodox Christian. His actual religious beliefs are not clearly defined, but references in his letters imply a firm belief in an ultimate, benign, and intelligent Power.
As early as 1818, Beethoven showed genuine interest in "true church music", which to him was defined by the musical styles of the earliest composers of religious music, like Palestrina. He wrote notes to himself to look through all the monastic church chorals and strophes in the most correct translations and to find perfect prosody in psalms and hymns. At the same time, he became fascinated with the texts of the Mass, perhaps drawing less conventional interpretations from the words, which he meant to represent in a Mass of his own composition. As he explored church music with increasing enthusiasm, he located sources of information, through books or people, in musical or philosophical contexts, to contribute to his quest.
Galileo
Galileo is often remembered for his conflict with the Roman Catholic Church. His controversial work on the solar system was published in 1633. It had no proofs of a sun-centered system (Galileo's telescope discoveries did not indicate a moving earth) and his one "proof" based upon the tides was invalid. It ignored the correct elliptical orbits of planets published twenty five years earlier by Kepler. Since his work finished by putting the Pope's favorite argument in the mouth of the simpleton in the dialogue, the Pope (an old friend of Galileo's) was very offended. After the "trial" and being forbidden to teach the sun-centered system, Galileo did his most useful theoretical work, which was on dynamics. Galileo expressly said that the Bible cannot err, he saw his system as concerning the issue of how the Bible should be interpreted.[Sources:] Annibale Fantoli, Galileo: For Copernicanism and for the Church (1994), M. Sharratt, Galileo (1994), M. A. Finnochiaro, The Galileo Affair: A Documentary History (1989)
As early as 1818, Beethoven showed genuine interest in "true church music", which to him was defined by the musical styles of the earliest composers of religious music, like Palestrina. He wrote notes to himself to look through all the monastic church chorals and strophes in the most correct translations and to find perfect prosody in psalms and hymns. At the same time, he became fascinated with the texts of the Mass, perhaps drawing less conventional interpretations from the words, which he meant to represent in a Mass of his own composition. As he explored church music with increasing enthusiasm, he located sources of information, through books or people, in musical or philosophical contexts, to contribute to his quest.
Galileo
Galileo is often remembered for his conflict with the Roman Catholic Church. His controversial work on the solar system was published in 1633. It had no proofs of a sun-centered system (Galileo's telescope discoveries did not indicate a moving earth) and his one "proof" based upon the tides was invalid. It ignored the correct elliptical orbits of planets published twenty five years earlier by Kepler. Since his work finished by putting the Pope's favorite argument in the mouth of the simpleton in the dialogue, the Pope (an old friend of Galileo's) was very offended. After the "trial" and being forbidden to teach the sun-centered system, Galileo did his most useful theoretical work, which was on dynamics. Galileo expressly said that the Bible cannot err, he saw his system as concerning the issue of how the Bible should be interpreted.[Sources:] Annibale Fantoli, Galileo: For Copernicanism and for the Church (1994), M. Sharratt, Galileo (1994), M. A. Finnochiaro, The Galileo Affair: A Documentary History (1989)
