“As he found great relief from music in his temptations, sadness and fits of melancholy, he wrote to Ludwig Senftlin [Senfl], the Ducal Bavarian Band-master, and begged him to set to music the text ‘_In pace in idipsum dormiam et requiescam_,’ which he did”; it was also Luther’s custom to have some music after supper with his guests, “especially devotional music, taken from the Gregorian chants.”[455] It is a relief to dwell for a moment, at the conclusion of a rather disagreeable chapter, on the pleasing trait of Luther’s fondness for the melodies of the Church which he had known and loved from his youth, and for music generally. Formerly, the notes of the Church’s chants had summoned him to “raise a clean heart to God,” and now music assists him to assuage to some extent the storms which rage in his breast. His letter to the highly esteemed composer Senfl, who was in the service of the Duke of Bavaria, is still extant.[456] It is dated October 4, 1530, and in it Luther asks for a copy of a motet on the text “_In pace_,” etc., arranged for several voices, should Senfl have such a thing, for since his boyish days the (Gregorian) melody to this text had pleased him, and did so still more when he learnt to understand the meaning of the words of the text. If Senfl had no such composition in his possession then he would beg him to compose one later, perhaps after Luther’s death, for he now hoped that death would soon free him from a world of which he was as weary as it was of him, one reason why that Antiphon of the entrance into rest was so dear to him. It is the first Antiphon in the Nocturns of the Holy Saturday Office and runs: “In peace in the selfsame I will sleep and I will rest, for Thou, O Lord, hast singularly settled me in hope.”[457] “We know,” he continues, “that music is hateful and unbearable to the devils, and I am not ashamed to declare, that next to theology only music is able to afford interior peace and joy. The devil likes to cause us trouble and perplexity, but he takes to flight at the sound of music, just as he does at the words of theology, and for this reason the prophets always combined theology and music, the teaching of truth and the chanting of psalms and hymns.” “It was thus that David with his harp,” he said on another occasion, “allayed Saul’s temptations when the devil plagued him.... Do not dispute with the devil about the law, for he is a rare conjurer.”[458] “He has a bulwark against us in our flesh and blood; ... when he makes me fancy that God is far from me, I say: Well then, I will cry and call upon Him.”[459] “ Many temptations and evil thoughts are dispelled by music.”[460] “Singers are cheerful and drive away cares with song.”[461]