His glory spread after his death. On April 20 he was interred in Westminster Abbey, as he had requested.[275] The annual performances of his oratorios continued in Lent under the direction of his friend, Christopher Smith. Popular performances of them were soon given. The great festival of his Commemoration celebrated at Westminster Abbey and in the Pantheon, from May 26 to June 5, 1784, for the centenary of his birth,[276] was observed all over Europe. New festivals took place in London in 1785, 1786, 1787, 1790, and 1791. On the last occasion more than a thousand executants[277] took part. Haydn was present, and he said, through his tears, "He is master of us all." The English performances attracted the attention of Germany. Two years after the Commemoration, Johann Adam Hiller produced _The Messiah_ in the Cathedral Church at Berlin, then at Leipzig, and then at Breslau. Three years later, in 1789, Mozart made his arrangements of _The Messiah_, of _Acis and Galatea_, of the _Ode to St. Cecilia_, and of _Alexander's Feast_.[278] The first complete edition of Handel was commenced in 1786. A strong feeling of emulation made itself felt in Germany to imitate the English festivals, and to restore choral singing, and to found the _Singakademien_ for the preservation of the national glories.[279] The rendering of Handel's oratorios inspired Haydn to write _The Creation_. Beethoven at the end of his life said of Handel: "See there is the truth."[280] Poets also vied equally in rendering him homage. Goethe admired him, and Herder devoted a chapter to him in his _Adrastea_ of 1802. The wars of Independence gave an access of favour to the oratorio of freedom, to _Judas Maccabæus_.