At the time of Calvin's arrival in Strasburg, Bucer was much tormented by Catherine's spirit of domination; perhaps he should have understood that her defects were but the exaggeration of her good qualities. He complained of her influence over her husband: 'Matthew Zell is certainly pious,' he said, 'but ... he is ruled by his wife.'[298] Another time he said: 'He ought to preach faith more fully, more earnestly, but ... his wife drives him to care for nothing but works.'[299] The zealous Bucer, who was so often journeying to reconcile Christians and Churches, could not endure that Zell should think only of his parish, should see nothing but his dear Strasburg, and ascribed even that to Catherine. 'Oh,' said he, 'if Matthew were but more zealous for the unity of the Church!' And yet Bucer esteemed him highly, and called him 'a God-seeking man, and of upright heart.' Zell and Catherine were in those Reformation times a Christian pair, worthy to figure in history, notwithstanding their failings. Perhaps, however, Calvin recollected Catherine's character when he reckoned patience and gentleness among the foremost qualities he should look for in a wife.[300] Calvin already knew by reputation the eminent men who were living in Strasburg. He was never tired of seeing and hearing them, both at their own houses and at Matthew Zell's. He admired in Bucer, with whom he had corresponded, and whom he afterwards called his father,[301] a noble heart, a peaceful spirit, a penetrating mind, and an untiring activity. Capito was not less attractive to him. Calvin knew that, disgusted with the intrigues of the court, he had left the elector of Mentz, and in 1532 had gone to Strasburg in search of evangelical liberty, and from that hour had watched with interest the movements of the Gospel in France. He was, therefore, impatient to see a man who, by the extent of his learning and the nobility of his character, held the first rank in the learned city where he resided; and fortunately Capito, who went to Wisbaden towards the end of August 1534, was still at Strasburg when the reformer passed through it. All these doctors joyfully saw France bringing her tribute at last to the work of Christian instruction. They were struck with Calvin's seriousness, with the greatness of his character, the depth of his thoughts, and the liveliness of his faith; and the young doctor, for his part, drank in with delight that perfume of learning and piety, which exhaled from the conversation and life of these men of God. [Sidenote: DEFICIENCIES IN THE THEOLOGIANS.]