Salomo Franck, Bach’s new collaborator, was Curator of the Ducal Museum of Coins and Medals at Weimar. He was twenty-six years older than Bach. But Spitta’s conjecture,(388) that the two men were not acquainted, is hardly tenable. Both resided in the same small provincial town, both were in the Duke’s service, and throughout 1715 and 1716 collaborated in at least ten Cantatas performed in the Ducal Chapel. Moreover, though the Preface of Franck’s first cycle is dated 4th June 1715,(389) Bach had already set one of its libretti for Easter of that year. A second cycle of texts, of which Bach made little use,(390) was published by Franck in 1717.(391) Schweitzer, no doubt, is correct in his conclusion(392) that Bach was drawn to Franck by his poetic insight, his mysticism, and innate feeling for nature. It must be remembered, too, that his libretti were, in some degree, official. On the other hand, Franck was Neumeister’s inferior in ability to conceive a picture fit to express Bach’s larger moods, and on occasion could descend to sheer bathos.(393) But his texts have a rhythmic swing and melody which Bach found agreeable. He set at least sixteen of them, and returned to them even after he settled at Leipzig. The circumstances which terminated Bach’s service at Weimar are familiar, and need not be restated. He received a new appointment at Cöthen on 1st August 1717, and took up his duties there, probably at Christmas, that year.(394) His position was that of Capellmeister to the princely Court. He never styles himself Court Organist,(395) and his duties severed him for five years from the service of the Church, to which he had declared his particular dedication in 1708. The Cöthen Court was unpretentious. The Prince was a Calvinist. Figurate music was not permitted in the Court Chapel, and its Organ was small and inadequate. Hence Bach devoted himself chiefly to chamber music, and only two genuine Church Cantatas belong to this period of his career. Both must have been written for performance elsewhere, possibly in connection with Bach’s frequent Autumn tours as a performer.(396) For both Cantatas Bach employed a librettist, otherwise little known, named Johann Friedrich Helbig, State Secretory to the Eisenach Court. In March 1720,(397) more than two years after Bach’s arrival at Cöthen, Helbig published a cycle of “Musical Texts on the Sunday and Saints’ Day Gospels throughout the year,” for performance “in God’s honour by the Prince’s Kapelle at Eisenach.”(398) How they came into Bach’s hands we do not know, but can readily conjecture. They are indifferent poetry, judging them by the two specimens Bach made use of, and are uniform in construction. The first movement invariably is a Chorus upon a text from the Gospel for the Day, or a Scripture passage closely related to it. Two Arias separated by a Recitative follow. A Choral brings the libretto to an end.(399)