Calvin and Du Tillet soon noticed his partner, Catherine Schulz, daughter of a carpenter in the city, a clever, intelligent, active, firm woman, who had managed to obtain the ascendant over everyone, and a little too much so over her husband. The young reformer saw in her one of the types of the Christian woman, who cumbereth herself, who receiveth the prophets honourably, but who, while doing good, sometimes values herself more highly than she does others.[295] Catherine's soul was troubled for a long time; she doubted of her salvation. At last the voice of Luther reached her, and brought her peace. 'He persuades me so thoroughly of the ineffable goodness of Jesus Christ,' she exclaimed, 'that I feel as if I were dragged from the depths of hell, and transported into the kingdom of heaven. Day and night I will now tread the path of truth.'[296] From that hour Catherine resolutely dedicated herself to the practice of good works. The pastor of St. Lawrence often had a large number of persecuted christians seated round his table, and kept them in his house for many weeks. One night he received 150 pious men from a little town of Brisgau, who, having left their homes in the middle of the night, had arrived in great distress at Strasburg. Catherine found means to lodge fourscore of them in the parsonage, and for a month had fifty or sixty of them daily at her table. Even when her house was full, she displayed the most unceasing activity abroad. Caring neither for dress nor worldly recreations, the pastor's wife visited the houses of the poor, nursed the sick, wrapped the dead in their grave-clothes, comforted the prisoners, and organised collections in favour of the refugees. _She was never weary in well-doing._ In the midst of her zeal, however, she took too much credit to herself. One day, recounting her merits, she said: 'I have conscientiously assisted my beloved Matthew in his ministry and in the management of his house. I have loved the company of the learned. I have embraced the interests of the Lord's Church. Hence all the pastors and a great number of distinguished men testify their affection and respect for me.' Catherine did not know all that these 'distinguished men' thought of her; the colour would have mounted to her cheeks could she have seen a certain letter from Bucer to Blaurer, of the 16th November 1533, in which that celebrated Strasburg doctor complains of Zell's wife, 'who is so over head and ears in love with herself;' or if that letter of the 3rd of February 1534 had been brought to her, in which her husband's friend wrote of her: 'Catherine, like all of us, is too fond of herself.'[297]