everything else and our whole righteousness before God, which we do not find in ourselves and without faith never will find, no matter how long and repeatedly one blabbers and pushes the law, though without understanding and knowledge. Let this suffice for this time on this text, wherewith we have served God and brought a thank offering to the praise and honor of his grace. Amen.
Drunkenness, I Pet. 4:7–11, May 18, 1539 This sermon, preached in the parish church of Wittenberg on the Epistle for Exaudi Sunday, in which Luther deals head-on with asocial question of his day, is remarkable for its non-legalistic treatment of the subject. The title given above is that of the printed version which appeared in Augsburg (without date, but not before 1542). Three texts are given in the Weimar edition: Rörer's transcript, Stoltz's transcript, and the printed version which is Aurifaber's based on Rörer's notes. The Rörer transcript forms the basis of this translation, with occasional references to the other two versions.
Text in Latin and German; WA 47, 757–772.
This part of [the first] Epistle [of Peter] is an exhortation to good conduct. Those who are Christians are to see to it that they are grateful for grace and redemption and conduct themselves modestly, moderately, and soberly, so that one does not go on living the swinish life that goes on in the filthy world.
For this Epistle was written to the Greeks, who were great high livers. In those regions there was gluttony just as in Germany today.
Where one can find sermons which will stop the Germans from swilling I do not know. We might just as well have kept silent altogether. Christ says that the coming last day will come upon men unawares and snatch them away (Luke 21 [:35]), and Paul says the same thing in I Thess. 5 [:2], and also the prophets likewise. The Italians call us gluttonous, drunken Germans and pigs because they live decently and do not drink until they are drunk. Like the Spaniards, they have escaped this vice. Among the Turks it is really the worst sin for a man to be drunk. So temperate are they that they do not even drink anything which inebriates. That is why they can make war and win; while we drunken sows sleep they keep awake, and thus can consider their strategy and then attack and conquer. When the time comes for us to defend ourselves and be prepared, we get drunk. This has become so widespread that there is no help for it; it has become a settled custom.
At first it was the peasants who drank to excess, then it spread to the citizens. In my time it was considered a great shame among the nobility. Now they are worse than the citizens and peasants; now those who are the greatest and best are beginning to fall, indeed, even the princes; and among those who are the ablest it has become a noble and princely virtue. Now the ten-year-old milksops, and the students, too, are beginning, and ruining themselves in their flower; when the corn should be growing and flourishing it is beaten down by a storm. We preach, but who stops it? Those who should stop it do it themselves; the princes even more. Therefore Germany is a land of hogs and a filthy people which debauches its body and its life. If you were going to paint it, you would have to paint a pig.
Some spark of sobriety may remain among young children, virgins, and women, though underneath one finds pigs among them too. However, there remains some bit of decency, for it is still said that it is especially shameful for a woman to be drunken. The Turks have this teaching, which is a fine thing, and the Italians too. Among us it is considered most shameful. But if it ill becomes the children and young women, so that we say that such should be trampled under foot, how much more should not this be so of married women and particularly men, who should be wiser and more virtuous, since the woman is the weaker vessel [I Pet. 3:7] and the man has more strength and reason? Therefore they should do this even less, and therefore, according to reason, it is a far more shameful thing for men to drink to excess than for women. It might be said in defense of woman that she is foolish and has not such a strong body, and therefore drink affects her more quickly. But this is not so of the man, who is stronger than the woman.