Luther on Beer: Collection of Authentic Quotes

ecently I was browsing an online retail store for a customizable mug to give as a gift to a fellow pastor. There was already a mug available for purchase called the “Martin Luther Beer Stein,” which contained two alleged Luther quotes. One of them sounded obviously apocryphal and the other sounded suspect. So I decided to dig a little and to compile and translate a relatively comprehensive list of authentic Luther quotes on beer and drinking. (It turned out to be a good project to work on during a terrible blizzard.) My compilation has a twofold bent:

1. It provides quotes that could be used on customized mugs, glasses, steins, or tankards (a Christmas gift to you from Red Brick Parsonage). Incidentally, the quotes you glean here for this purpose don’t necessarily have to be the ones that portray beer (or wine) favorably. Any of Luther’s warnings against drunkenness would also be appropriate for drinkware.
2. It provides rarely cited quotes about beer, wine, and drinking in general that are of historical interest and/or provide insight into Luther’s life, character, and views.

This isn’t the sort of project I would normally publish on this site. It’s liable to end up becoming one of my most popular posts, and I’d rather have people visiting this site to dine on hearty doctrinal meat that will nourish their souls than to satisfy their curiosity about a topic of worldly, everyday interest. The fact that some of these quotes also contain scriptural admonition and instruction helped to allay my concerns. But I would also ask any conscientious reader who appreciates this collection to do me the honor of reading at least one other post on my site, if you have not already. If you’re looking for suggestions, “Luther’s House Sermon on the Canaanite Woman” and “Martin Luther’s Favorite Christmas Hymn?” should prove to be enriching without unduly taxing your time.

In compiling this list, I verified that the apocryphal-sounding quote on the Martin Luther Beer Stein was in fact apocryphal. (Luther never said, “It is better to think of church in the ale-house than of the ale-house in church.”) The quote I was suspicious about, however, turned out to be an actual Luther quote (included in #4 below), though reading it out of context can give a mistaken impression about what Luther was saying. I do my best below to provide context for the quotes that require it.

I was somewhat surprised to discover that, as you will see, there are not many quotes where Luther praises beer outright. In fact, he commonly has three complaints about beer. The first will no doubt disappoint many Lutherans: Luther says more than once that he wishes beer had never been invented, primarily because of the waste of barley that would have been able to “keep all of Germany alive” in other forms. (A home-brewing friend of mine confirmed that brewing is indeed “a fairly inefficient use of grain.”)

His second complaint is much more gratifying to beer aficionados: Luther did not like light beer, and there was a lot of light beer to be had, even in his own cellar (by necessity). One of the most common beers in Luther’s day was kofent, which derives from the Latin word conventus, “convent,” because apparently monks were the first to brew it. Proper kofent was made by pouring water onto the draff (spent grain) from a previous batch of actual beer—akin to using a used tea bag to make a new pot of tea or the same coffee grounds to brew a new pot of coffee. But the term could also be used for any beer that was weaker or didn’t taste quite right, no matter how it was made. Kofent was also called thin or weak beer (Dünnbier), after-beer (Nachbier or Afterbier), table beer (Speisebier, Tafelbier, Tischbier), and other names. So basically, whenever Luther rails against kofent, just imagine him shredding Busch Light, Bud Light, Miller Lite, etc., or for that matter the regular flagship “beers” produced by those companies.

His third complaint pops up later in his life when brewers started lining their barrels with pitch to prevent them from absorbing the beer into their wood and admitting the atmospheric air through their pores. The pitch gave the beer a peculiar flavor, which apparently the peasants liked, but Luther claimed it caused chest congestion. Unfortunately, the table talk where Luther rails against “the new invention of pitch” (#24) is undated; if this quote could be confidently dated, it would be critical to beer brewing history. Since there is another quote about the peasants’ fondness for pitch dated February 1539 (#25), #24 probably dates to the late 1530s.

Luther was not a drunk, as many other historians have also noted. He in fact regularly rebuked and lamented drunkenness both in private conversation and from the pulpit, including one particularly memorable sermon (#28). He did not even shy away from admonishing princes and their courtiers against it. Not to mention that Luther simply could not have accomplished everything he did if he were a drunk. Luther did, however, regularly enjoy alcoholic beverages, and it is untrue that the historical record never documents Luther getting drunk, as some have maintained. The most obvious example dates to the end of May 1536, when a number of Protestant theologians gathered in Wittenberg to hold discussions and attempt to reach agreement on the doctrine of the Lord’s Supper. Among those attending was Wolfgang Musculus, who wrote a daily report of the negotiations to bring back to Augsburg. Musculus reported the following events for May 29, the day the so-called Wittenberg Concord was signed (Theodor Kolde, ed., Analecta Lutherana [Gotha: Friedrich Andreas Perthes, 1883], 229):

At 1 o’clock our brothers [namely, the other southern German theologians] left to make it to [Bad] Düben, leaving me and [Martin] Frecht with [Justus] Menius and [Friedrich] Myconius in Wittenberg. After they departed, Philipp [Melanchthon] led me to the university and showed me the Greek Epiphanius, two books written very long ago. For dinner Dr. Luther and Philipp and Lucas [Cranach] the painter were at our lodging, where Dr. Luther told us about the deceits with which he had been repeatedly tested. After dinner we went over together to the abode of Master Lucas the painter and drank some more. After leaving the painter’s house, we brought Dr. Luther home, where we continued doing the Saxon thing and drank some more. He was in marvelously fine spirits and was making benevolent promises of every kind.

Luther was riding a high from the successfully concluded negotiations—negotiations concluded with an agreement that had sided with his position almost entirely—and if this isn’t a description of him getting drunk, I don’t know what is. I am sure that countless Christians still today could be identified who, like Luther, are otherwise known as sober people who, if they drink, drink in moderation and acknowledge drunkenness as a sin and are against it, and who nevertheless have drunk too much on occasion. This doesn’t excuse the drunkenness; those Christians themselves would not excuse it. (Remember that Luther continued practicing private confession with Pastor Johannes Bugenhagen until his death, and doubtless would have also confessed the times he got drunk as sins.) But Christians are sinful humans too; they, too, are known to abuse God’s good gifts now and then. Christians are not defined by perfection, but by repentance. In addition, Luther himself noted that he would rather live in the joy and freedom of the gospel and have one too many beers on occasion than live under the law and paralyze himself with scrupulous worry “about committing any little sin” (see #4). (If you think that means he took a soft stance on drunkenness and other sins, just read the quotes below.)

We also need to remember that alcoholic beverages were also viewed and used medicinally in Luther’s day (as they are to an extent still today, e.g. hot toddies); there was no Robitussin for sale. If someone is knocked out by prescription or over-the-counter medication today, we think nothing of it, if it gives the person relief or helps him or her to rest and recover. But when people did the same with beer or wine back then, we tend to shake our heads and call them drunks. Luther was often ill, especially toward the end of his life, and often drank to allay his illnesses and pain. This also helps to explain the large amount of alcohol he appears to have consumed during his final days in Eisleben (see #37).

All the translations below are my own, except for #2. WA stands for Weimarer Ausgabe (Weimar Edition of Luther’s works), Br for the Briefwechsel (Correspondence) volumes in that series, and TR for the Tischreden (Table Talk) volumes in that series. I have generally organized the following quotes chronologically. If any Luther scholar or aficionado thinks there are other quotes that should be included in this list, please comment below or use the information on the About page to submit them. I will be happy to give them my serious consideration.

With that, please enjoy these Luther quotes on beer and drinking. You don’t need to enjoy these quotes in moderation, but please do so enjoy the beverages they describe. “[It is false, deceiving teachers who] order people to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth. For everything created by God is good and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, for it is consecrated through the word of God and prayer” (1 Tim. 4:3–5). “Everything is permissible for me, but I will not be mastered by anything” (1 Cor. 6:12). “Whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God” (1 Cor. 10:31).

Luther on Beer and Drinking

#1

We must begin by correcting the modern marketing narrative created by the Einbecker Brewery. At some point relatively recently, one of their marketing agents came up with this rhyming jingle: “Der beste Trank den einer kennt, wird Ainpöckisch Bier genennt!” (“The best of drinks to all is clear: It bears the name Einbecker beer!”) Luther is supposed to have spoken this rhyme on the spot after Duke Erich of Brunswick had a servant send him a silver tankard of Einbecker beer after his famous stand at the Diet of Worms on April 18, 1521.

Luther said no such thing. However, the context in which Luther is supposed to have said those words is legitimate. Duke Erich did have a servant send Luther a silver tankard filled with Einbecker beer to refresh himself after his famous stand. But what Luther actually said in response was (source):

As Prince Erich has thought of me today, so may Christ think of him in his final battle [i.e. in his final hours].

According to Franz von Kramm, one of Duke Erich’s page boys who attended him, Duke Erich did in fact remember Luther’s words on his deathbed and had Franz “revive him with evangelical comfort.”

These circumstances not only automatically make Einbecker beer the official beer of the Reformation, but they also make this quote one of the best candidates for a custom drinkware printing or engraving for the diehard Lutheran in your life. Yes, the quote says nothing about beer. Yes, it requires explanation. But it is at the heart of one of the most pivotal events of church history, and it came from the heart of the Church’s greatest post-biblical reformer as he held a tankard of Germany’s finest.

#2

Immediately after returning from the Wartburg, Luther preached a famous series of daily sermons from March 9–16, 1522, in order to restore order in Wittenberg. In his sermon on Monday, March 10, he preached these well-known words (Luther’s Works 51:77):

In short, I will preach [the Word], teach it, write it, but I will constrain no man [to believe it] by force, for faith must come freely without compulsion. Take myself as an example. I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but never with force. I simply taught, preached, and wrote God’s Word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philip [Melanchthon] and [Nikolaus von] Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor ever inflicted such losses upon it. I did nothing; the Word did everything.

#3

In a letter to Landgrave Philip of Hesse on or around May 20, 1530, about the Sacramentarian Controversy, Luther said that even his adversaries would prefer to take back some of their hastily-published and poorly-thought-out arguments at this point, if they could (WA Br 5:311, no. 1573):

If the beer were back in the barrel, they would just leave it in there at this point.

In a work written three years earlier, Luther similarly used the concept of wishing the beer were back in the barrel as a metaphor for wishing an ordeal had never been started (Luther’s Works 37:19).

#4

In July of 1530, while staying at the Coburg Fortress during the Diet of Augsburg, Luther penned a letter to Jerome Weller. Born in 1499, Weller matriculated at Wittenberg in 1525. From 1527 to 1536, Weller and his family lived in Luther’s house and ate at his table, in return for which he tutored Luther’s children. Weller struggled badly with depression, which Luther addressed in this letter (WA Br 5:519, no. 1670).

Therefore be of good cheer and stouthearted, and drive these terrible thoughts right out of your mind. And as often as the devil vexes you with these thoughts, right then and there seek out conversation with people, or drink a larger amount, or joke, jest, or do anything else more cheerful. Sometimes a person needs to drink a larger amount, play games, jest, and even commit some sin in hatred and contempt of the devil, so that we do not give him any opportunity to give us a bad conscience about extremely trivial matters. Otherwise we are conquered, if we end up too anxiously worrying about committing any little sin. Accordingly, if the devil should ever say, “Do not drink,” you should respond to him this way, “Instead, precisely because you prohibit it, I will drink, and I will drink an even larger amount.” Thus one must always do the opposite of whatever Satan forbids. Why else do you suppose it is that I drink wine so undiluted, converse so freely, and devour food so often like I do, other than to mock and vex the devil, who is determined to vex and mock me?

#5

On Saturday, July 29, 1531, Luther preached a sermon on John 7:32–35, during which he made this illustration (WA 33:417–18):

When a good beer is available, everyone makes a rush for it and does not dawdle, for they know that it will not last long; they won’t have it every day. Therefore people get it while it is available. If it were available for a long time, then our mouths would spoil us anyway, so that we didn’t appreciate it. But here people think that the Word will remain eternally, even though it remains and lasts a very short time.

#6

At his table in December of 1531, Luther, no doubt with a beer in hand, spoke these words recorded by Veit Dietrich (WA TR 1:60, no. 139):

If our Lord God can forgive me for crucifying and martyring him for some twenty years, he can certainly also make allowances for me when I take a drink to his glory now and then. God grant it! The world can interpret it however it wants and tends to do.

Luther is referring to his years as a priest performing the so-called sacrifice of the mass.

#7

Toward the end of that same month, Luther said these words at his table, recorded by Johannes Schlaginhaufen and Conrad Cordatus (WA TR 2:23, no. 1281; 2:425, no. 2344):

The man who invented beer brewing has been the bane of Germany. Rye can’t be anything but expensive in our territories. The horses eat the majority of our grain in oats, which are planted everywhere, for we cultivate more oats than rye. After that, the pious peasants and townspeople use up the vast majority of grain with their beer-swilling. In the splendid land of Thuringia, which is very fertile land, they have learned this piece of worthlessness: Wherever good, high-quality grain used to grow, dyer’s woad must now grow, which burns up and drains the soil to an extent beyond all measure.

#8

On February 27, 1532, Luther wrote home to his wife, Katharina or Käthe (Katie or Katy), while on a visit in Torgau (WA Br 6:270, no. 1908):

I am sleeping extremely well, some six or seven hours consecutively, and afterwards two or three hours more. It is due to the beer, I think. But I am sober, just like in Wittenberg.

#9

In the spring of 1532, Luther said these words at his table, recorded by Veit Dietrich (WA TR 1:107, no. 254):

Wine is blessed and is attested in Scripture, but beer is a human tradition.

#10

In the fall of 1532, Cordatus recorded Luther commenting at his table once again on the inventor of beer brewing (WA TR 2:613, no. 2716):

I have frequently cursed the first beer brewer. So much barley is ruined in brewing which could have been used to keep all of Germany alive. And it should be ruined like that if we are going to make such a shameful joke out of it which we then piss against the wall afterwards. There are three pecks in every quarter of beer, and for every one city that brews good beer, there are a hundred of them that brew table beer. The high cost and lack of beer will cause the university to move somewhere else. For the waters here are not healthy at all, but deadly. We will therefore be forced to leave.

According to the Grimm Brothers’ Deutsches Wörterbuch, in Saxony a quarter (Viertel) was equal to a ton (Tonne) or ninety quarts (Kannen; see entries “Tonne,” 2, a, α, and “Kanne,” 2), roughly twenty-two and a half gallons. (Kanne is also the word for “tankard.”) The capacity of a quarter varied by region; for instance, in Westphalia a quarter was synonymous with Stübchen (see #37) and roughly equivalent to a gallon.

#11

Around the same time, Luther made one of his most humorous, and nerdiest, criticisms of Wittenberg’s beer, also recorded by Cordatus (WA TR 2:638–39, no. 2757):

I have lived to see the end of the beer we cherish. It has all turned into kofent. And I ask God to destroy every cause of it—material, formal, efficient, and final—or if it still must be brewed, that a tenth of it would please turn out as beer. In ten years they have never been able to find the trick to it.

Material cause, formal cause, efficient cause, and final cause are all philosophical terms.

#12

Late that same fall, Cordatus recorded him saying the following at his table (WA TR 3:5, no. 2810b):

I believe that Adam was an extremely simple and extremely modest man. I also do not think that he lit candles; he didn’t know that the ox had tallow in his body, and he was not yet sacrificing cattle. I do wonder where he got the skins that he wore. This man Adam was, therefore, without a doubt extremely handsome—living to such an old age that he could see his eighth grandson—without a doubt the wisest man up until Noah, and well practiced in various trials, living in the utmost temperance, drinking neither wine nor beer. I wished that beer brewing had not been invented, for a whole lot of grain is spent in the process and nothing good is brewed.

#13

On November 24 that same year, Luther preached a sermon on 1 Timothy 1:5–7 in Wörlitz (WA 36:356).

If you can sit day and night in the tavern or elsewhere with good companions, chattering and gossiping, singing and shouting, and not grow tired or feel the work that goes into it, then you can certainly also sit in church for an hour and listen, to serve and gratify God.

#14

In the early part of 1533, Cordatus recorded these words of Luther (WA TR 3:113, no. 2948):

It is actually true that kofent is the strongest drink in my cellar, for even though many people drink it, one ton of kofent still outlasts three barrels of beer.

On the “ton,” see #10 above.

#15

While staying in Dessau to minister to Prince Joachim of Anhalt-Dessau, Luther wrote home to his wife on July 29, 1534 (WA Br 7:91, no. 2130):

Yesterday I drank some bad beer. Then I had to sing, “I don’t drink well, sorry to say, though I should like to dearly.” And I thought, what good wine and beer I have at home, besides a beautiful wife or, I should say, overlord. And you would do well to send over to me the entire cellarful of my wine and a bottle of your beer, as soon as you can, otherwise the new beer will prevent me from returning.

Luther’s little ditty appears to be an excerpt from a folk song or folk chant of some sort. I tried to retain his meter in my translation.

#16

In July of 1535, the University of Wittenberg had to be moved to Jena because of the plague. Luther stayed in Wittenberg and continued some of his teaching duties by letter. On August 18, 1535, he wrote to his colleague Justus Jonas (WA Br 7:232, no. 2223):

Here the loneliness of the city is strange, but we are alive and well, by God’s grace, living comfortably enough, except that there is absolutely no beer in the city. Blessed is my belly, which still has quite a bit in the cellar. Certainly the citizens are suffering from the shortage of drink. What would have happened if the school had stayed here? Anything new that’s brewed is drunk while it’s still quite warm right in front of the live coals, so that all those who could possibly brew are compelled to do so by thirsty force. [Alternate translation: so that all those who have drunk it are compelled to brew by thirsty force.]

#17

By September the plague was at an end, and plans were being made for doctorates to be conferred in Wittenberg on two students. Colleagues from the university were expected to return, including Justus Jonas, and Luther was excited at the prospect of having guests. He wrote to Jonas on September 4, 1535 (WA Br 7:249, no. 2234):

Then, if you are able to buy any hares or similar meats, or hunt them for free, send them, since we are planning on filling all of your bellies, if only that drink which they call zythum is successful. For my Katie has brewed seven quarters (as they are called), into which she has mixed thirty-two pecks of malt, wishing to satisfy my palate. She hopes it will turn out to be good beer. Whatever it turns out to be, you will taste it along with the others.

On “quarters,” see #10 above. Note also that Luther’s palate required about four and a half pecks of malt per quarter of beer, compared to the standard three pecks per quarter he mentions in #10. Zythum was a kind of malt liquor brewed by the Egyptians, but it is unlikely that Katie was attempting to brew an ancient recipe. Luther himself later refers to it as beer. In his excitement, he is simply using zythum in a playful way to refer to beer.

#18

In the fall of 1536, Anton Lauterbach and Jerome Weller recorded Luther musing on the following question (WA TR 3:350, no. 3483):

Why is it that the first drink from the tankard tastes the best? Perhaps on account of sin, since the flesh and the mouth are sinful.

#19

Around that same time, the following conversation took place at Luther’s table one evening (WA TR 3:344, no. 3476, anonymously recorded):

“Tomorrow I am supposed to lecture on the drunkenness of Noah [Genesis 9:20ff]. Therefore this evening I will drink enough so that I can then speak from experience about the wicked deed.”

Doctor Cordatus responded, “By no means! You should rather do the opposite.”

Then Luther said, “One does have to make allowances for the failings of every country. The Bohemians gorge, the Wends steal, the Germans have no qualms getting drunk. After all, dear Cordatus, how else could you outdo a German right now, except in drunkenness, especially one who does not love music and women?”

Tappert, in volume 54 of Luther’s Works, translates, “…except by making him drunk.” But that does not seem to be the sense. Luther’s point is that, if you want to best a German, there’s only one arena in which besting him will matter to him and others—drinking.

#20

On January 2, 1538, Luther spent the evening, together with Justus Jonas and apparently Anton Lauterbach (the recorder), in the house of Blasius Matthäus, a Wittenberg councilman. Lauterbach records:

Then absinthe beer was brought out. He responded, “Oh no! People are sending me absinthe beer from France, Prussia, and Russia in my own house! It’s becoming plenty bitter to me.”

Absinthe beer was beer to which absinthe was added to give it a bitter flavor. This must have been somewhat similar to the current IPA craze which, for the record, is dumb.

#21

About a week later, between January 8–10, Lauterbach recorded this conversation between Philipp Melanchthon and Luther (WA TR 3:537, no. 3693):

Then [Melanchthon] was talking a great deal about his love of wine, and that there is no good wine to be had anywhere. Luther responded, “That’s because we abuse its abundance for our own extravagance. This results in diseases—leprosy, kidney stones and gallstones, gout in the foot, and gout in the hand. Those who are always drinking wine very often have gout in the foot, but beer produces dropsy.”

#22

On February 12, 1538, Luther wrote to Justus Jonas, who was in Zerbst at the time (WA Br 8:197, no. 3216):

Your house is safe—thanks be to Christ—but your beer is ruined, if the same beer is in your cellar that you gave me as a gift. But let the beer be ruined and along with it the old man himself—the container, or rather skin, of this martyred water—provided that the incorruption of the inner man, who drinks living water and the fountain springing up to eternal life, increases from day to day. Amen.

“This martyred water” refers to Jonas’s ruined beer, with Jonas himself, or rather his old Adam, being the skin (leather flask) that held some of it. Luther is combining serious theology with goofiness.

#23

On June 13 that same year, Luther wrote to Anton Unruhe, a judge in Torgau, to thank him for honoring his request to give a certain poor woman justice, and to thank him for something else (WA Br 8:237–38, no. 3238):

But, dear Judge Anton, wasn’t it sufficient for you to hear my request and intercession and give me comforting news of your love and willingness? Did you also have to live in remembrance of my person with a gift, and even do so with an entire vat of Torgau beer of your own brewing? I am not worthy of the kindness, and although I know that you are not poor, but that God has blessed you with good things and abundance, I would have preferred to see you give the beer away to your poor people, who together have brought you more blessing with their prayers than poor Martin has by himself.

A vat (Kufe) was ordinarily a stationary wooden container, open on top and somewhat broader and wider at the bottom than at the top, in which beer was brewed. But the term was then also used for a large enclosed beer barrel with two bottoms, or for the equivalent capacity of beer—some 600 quarts or 150 gallons.

#24

An undated (though probably from the latter half of the 1530s), anonymously recorded comment from Luther’s table (WA TR 5:697, no. 6501):

“Beer is the best drink, especially in winter, whenever it has not evaporated. But it requires a tremendous amount of barley. One-third of the harvested grain is consumed in drink.” Then he began railing against the new invention of pitch, since it caused congestion of the chest. “May God make us all content! If only we wouldn’t pervert his gifts so badly through greediness!”

I am unsure what the “evaporation” refers to, and would appreciate any insights from those with more brewing knowledge than I. That phrase could also possibly be translated: “when it doesn’t evaporate.”

#25

In the middle of February 1539, Lauterbach recorded Luther commenting on Torgau beer at his table. However, in order to understand what he says, we have to go back in time to a story Luther told at his table in January 1537, recorded by Lauterbach and Weller (WA TR 3:384, no. 3539a):

There was a merchant who sold “prophet’s berries” with a lot of hype, saying that if you ate them, you would soon be prophesying. When the Jews heard about this, they were paying an extremely high price for them, and when they put them in their mouths, they were soon prophesying, “This is crap!”

Now back to the February 1539 remarks (WA TR 4:247–48, no. 4347):

Torgau beer was once the distinguished queen above all others. Now it has so degenerated that in Leipzig they call it “prophet’s beer,” since as soon as it hits your tongue, it tastes like kofent, just as the “prophet’s berries” that were sold to the Jews in Frankfurt betrayed that they were crap once they were on the tongue; they were unpleasant in appearance and smelled nice. There’s a nice play on words there—prophet’s berries and prophet’s beer. The peasants now desire and go after the kind of beer that is thinned out and roasted [macerata et assata], dried and roasted [gederret und gebrathen], has a bright, thick, red color, and is pitched. This is what the peasants call a lovely beer.

“Gederret und gebrathen” might simply be Lauterbach rewriting in German what he had already recorded in Latin, “macerata et assata.” (Luther doubtless spoke German most of the time in his house, but recorders often recorded his words in Latin, since Latin was more conducive to taking notes.) On “pitched,” see my introductory remarks at the head of this post.

#26

Probably that same night (in February 1539), Luther was once again talking about Torgau (WA TR 4:248, no. 4349):

[Luther] was lamenting the debauchery of the city of Torgau, the fuel of whose corruption was the tavern. That general assembly of drinking completely corrupted the townspeople. “There people learn to be idle, gamble, gorge, and guzzle; whoring follows afterwards. What harm does it do if they would make even more taverns there—one for the councilmen, another for the townspeople, a third for the women, and a fourth for the servants, so that it would at least be broken up into classes? Then the employees of the court would also have a really nice assembly that is very lively! They themselves would prefer that there were one church in Torgau and five taverns. We definitely saw that during the first visitation, how unpleasant it ended up being for them to have to accommodate us in the tavern for so long. In summary, the world—she is going to the dregs. God help her!”

“The first visitation” to which Luther refers began at the end of April 1529. It was part of an effort to visit the churches in Electoral Saxony in order to learn what condition they were in and what sort of pastors they had. A note on the translation of this table talk: The original has the potential to be misunderstood, because Trinkstube, “tavern,” is a feminine word, and Luther often uses the form Trinkstuben here, which is a plural form in modern German. (Feminine singular and all plural nominatives and accusatives use the same form of the definite article, die.) So the reader must note that Stube used to have a weak declension, that is, all forms except the nominative singular ended in -n. In other words, there was only one tavern in Torgau where everyone from all classes met, and Luther wishes, if the debauchery can’t be stopped, that it would at least be moderated by the existence of additional taverns, which would each be intended for specific classes.

#27

Between May 16 to 18, 1539, Lauterbach recorded Luther comparing German drunkenness to Turkish temperance (WA TR 4:401, no. 4607):

Then he was talking about the sobriety and temperance of the Muslim Turks, who lived in moderation and had a drink brewed from herbs and honey, like our mead, which they call maslach, which has three forms. [Alternate translation: maslach, that is, “threefold.”] One form of it, the strongest, they drank when they were about to go to war. The second form was for daily use, and the third form was for sex—their version of Torgau beer.

According to the second edition of Robley Dunglison’s Medical Lexion: A New Dictionary of Medical Science (Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1839), 379.2, maslach was a medicinal excitant, “much used by the Turks,” which contained opium. But I have no idea if this is the same product to which Luther is referring. 

#28

Luther also compared the Germans to the Muslim Turks in his famous sermon on 1 Peter 4:7–11 on Exaudi (Easter 7), May 18 (WA 47:763, 764–65, 766). There are a couple quotes from this sermon excerpt that could be printed or engraved on beer mugs and tankards and viewed as encouraging the enjoyment of a good drink, but as you can see, such quotes would be ironically used, considering the larger context of the sermon.

Eating and drinking are not forbidden, but every kind of food is permitted, and you are allowed to have a modest drink for pleasure. But if you wish to go beyond that and be a sow, as if you were born to gulp down beer and wine, then you should know that you are not going to be saved. It’s no wonder that everyone is a beggar! How much money people could save if they didn’t spend it on drink! … Do not think that you are going to be saved if you are a drunken sow day and night. Everyone should know that drunkenness is such a great sin that it is a hindrance to your baptism, faith, and eternal salvation. … If you are weary and dejected, have a drink. But do not think that you are a Christian if you wish to be a sow and do nothing but gorge and guzzle.

#29

After 1529, the children of one of Luther’s sisters, who had married Klaus Polner, lived with him. One of those children was Hans Polner, who was not only mentally slow, but was also given to drink. In the late spring of 1540, Johannes Mathesius recorded this confrontation between Luther and his nephew (WA TR 4:636, no. 5050):

The doctor was remonstrating with his drunken nephew [Hans] Polner: “On account of you and your friends,” he says, “I have a bad reputation among outsiders. For my adversaries scrutinize everything, and when I let out a fart, they smell it in Rome. What if you should ever injure someone? Don’t you stop to think about what a mark you could brand on me, on this house, on this city, on the church, and on the gospel of God? The other drunks are cheerful and pleasant, like my father. They sing and crack jokes. But you are turned completely into a rage. People like that should abstain from wine as if it were poison, and wine is an instant poison to natures of that sort. Cheerful people can drink a larger amount of wine now and then.”

Apparently at a later date, he referred to his nephew’s “feeble head” and said: “His father was as drunk as a sow when he made Polner. A shameful thing! Drunken people should sleep and leave their wives undisturbed, as even Plato writes that men should not marry and bring a wife home unless they are sober” (WA TR 5:332, no. 5725).

#30

Luther’s friend and colleague Philipp Melanchthon traveled to a colloquy in Hagenau after Philip of Hesse’s bigamy became known and was causing a scandal for the Lutherans. The sensitive Melanchthon was so troubled by the scandal that by the time he reached Weimar he had already become so sick that he could not continue the trip. He contracted a bad fever and was bedridden. Luther personally went to see him and arrived in Weimar on June 23, 1540. He found Melanchthon deathly ill, unrecognizable, and unable to hear or speak. Luther later said that Melanchthon’s eyes had already dimmed like a dead person’s. Luther prayed some of his most intense prayers and Melanchthon recovered. In good spirits, Luther wrote home to his wife on July 2, 1540 (WA Br 9:168, no. 3509):

I submissively tender to You and Your Grace the notice that things are going well for me here. I am gorging like a Bohemian and guzzling like a German—God be thanked for this. Amen.

Luther wrote something similar in another letter to his wife on July 16, this time from Eisenach, but in a more qualified and reserved way (WA Br 9:174, no. 3512):

Your grace should know that—God be praised—we are spry and healthy, gorging like the Bohemians (though not excessively), guzzling like the Germans (though not much). But we are happy, for our gracious lord from Magdeburg, Bishop [Nikolaus von] Amsdorf, is our table companion.

#31

On July 26, Luther wrote his wife again from Eisenach (WA Br 9:205, no. 3519):

We would be happy if Your Grace would arrange for us to find a good drink of beer at your place. For, God willing, we will head out for Wittenberg Tuesday morning.

#32

In the summer 1540, Luther composed a number of (spontaneous?) verses, including this set (WA TR 5:108, no. 5375r):

Trinck und iß, / Gott nicht vergiß.
Bewar dein ehr / Dir wirt nicht mehr
Von deiner hab / Den ein tuch zum grab.

Modern version:
Trink’ und iß, / Gott nicht vergiß.
Bewahr’ dein’ Ehr’ / Dir wird nicht mehr
Von deiner Hab’ / Denn ein Tuch zum Grab’.

Drink and dine / with God in mind.
Guard honor, for / there’s nothing more
you’ll have of worth / save a shroud ’neath earth.

#33

People were paid in beer back in Luther’s day too. On April 25, 1541, Luther penned a letter to Elector Johann Friedrich, in which he asked the elector for some recompense for Georg Kleinschmidt, a physician in Wittenberg.

I myself have still never given [Doctor Kleinschmidt] anything for many services, except a drink of beer.

Luther actually refers to him as Doctor Cubito, his frequent misspelling of Kleinschmidt’s alias, Curio.

#34

In lecturing on Genesis 41:45 in 1544 (WA 44:446):

The Germans have a proverb: “The beer tastes like the barrel. If the mother is a whore, the daughter is not pious either.”

#35

Luther’s sermon on June 14, 1545, made such an impression on Anton Lauterbach that he wrote about it later. Even though Georg Rörer’s transcript of that sermon doesn’t include this precise example, Lauterbach recalled that Luther cited offering kofent as actual beer as an example of theft or stealing (WA TR 5:646, no. 6406; cp. WA 49:790, 791). I suppose if you wanted to paraphrase this Luther quote and turn it into a dynamic equivalent for a drinkware (or even a T-shirt) printing or engraving, you could use:

Selling light beer as beer is theft.

#36

In his final visit to Eisleben toward the end of January and into February, 1546, Luther was attempting to resolve a dispute between counts. On February 1, 1546, he wrote home to his wife (WA Br 11:276, no. 4195):

I am drinking Naumburg beer that nearly tastes like the beer from Mansfeld that you recommended to me once. It suits me well, and in the morning it gives me about three bowel movements in three hours.

#37

On February 7, eleven days before his death, Luther wrote home to his wife again (WA Br 11:287):

We are living well here and the council gives me a half-gallon [halbstubigen] of Rebula [Reinfal] at each meal, which is very good. Sometimes I share it with my companions. The local wine here is likewise good, and the Naumburg beer is very good, except that I think that it causes congestion in my chest with its pitch. The devil has ruined the beer in the whole world for us with pitch, and by you he has ruined the wine with sulfur. But here the wine is pure, except what the local method [or the nature of the land] gives to it.

Reinfal was highly valued sweet wine from the Istrian peninsula and is today known as Ribolla Gialla in Italy and Rebula in Slovenia, though it is now principally a dry wine. Stubigen is not a form of Stübich (which was a shipping barrel roughly equivalent to a ton [see #10]), but an old form of its diminutive, Stübchen. According to the Grimm Brothers’ Deutsches Wörterbuch, a Stübchen was “at the most four quarts” or a gallon. Even though Luther was sometimes sharing it, he was still drinking relatively heavily if he was drinking a good portion of a half-gallon of wine (two and half bottles in today’s terms) at every meal and some Naumburg beer besides. But one must also remember that Luther was not doing well at the time, and he and his companions probably viewed his drinking as also serving medicinal purposes. See my comments in the introduction at the head of this post.

Quote of the Week – Hus a Goose, Luther a Swan

I had read in more than one place about the reformer Jan Hus’s supposed prophecy that a hundred years after his death, a swan would arise who would (fill in the blank with reformatory activity). This of course was always applied to Martin Luther. Consider Johannes Mathesius’ usage of the story:

But the worthy martyr from Bohemia, Master Johann Huss, also prophesied about this doctor a hundred years before the fact, and hit upon the exact year he would arise and finally sing a nice little song to the Roman Church. “Today you all roast a goose,” said Master Goose in 1415, when the Council of Constance was about to burn him, “but more than a hundred years from now,” namely, once the year 1516 was counted off, “a purer swan will come, who will finally sing you a different little song,” which then happened – God be praised! For in 1516 Doctor Luther began to dispute against indulgences.

Similar to Elector Frederick the Wise’s alleged dream about Luther’s 95 Theses the night before he reportedly posted them, I have always wondered about the veracity of this prophecy.

I think I have found the answer, thanks to an article by Dr. Gottfried Herrmann of the ELFK in the Fall 2017 issue (vol. 114, no. 4) of the Wisconsin Lutheran Quarterly. There Dr. Hermmann refers to Luther’s 1531 Commentary on the Alleged Imperial Edict. Luther composed this work in response to Emperor Charles V’s publication on November 19, 1530, of the final resolution of the Diet of Augsburg. In it the emperor “essentially reviv[ed] the Edict of Worms and [gave] the evangelicals a period of grace until April 15, 1531. In order effectively to root out abuses in the church, the emperor intended to persuade the pope and rulers to hold a council within six months. In the meantime the Protestant princedoms and cities should publish nothing further, should cease to proselytize, and should restore monastic and ecclesiastical properties.”

Toward the end of Luther’s Commentary, he himself cites the alleged prophecy (cited in the aforementioned article by Dr. Hermann):

St. John Hus prophesied about me when he wrote from his prison in Bohemia, “They will roast a goose now (for Hus means a goose [in Czech]), but in a hundred years they will hear a swan singing that they will have to put up with.” And that is the way it will be, if God wills.

In the Weimar Edition, this quote is footnoted by the editors as follows:

At the beginning of his imprisonment in Constance, at the end of 1414, thus a half-year before his death at the stake, Huss wrote to his friends in Prague the words that sound like a prophecy: “And this same truth has sent to Prague many falcons and eagles, which surpass the other birds in sharpness of vision, in replacement of the one weak and easily eliminated Goose. High above they are flying back and forth in this grace of God and snatching many birds for Christ Jesus, who will make them strong and will establish all his faithful” (Documenta Magistri Iohannis Hus ed. F. Palacky, Prag 1869, Epistolae Nr. 17, p. 40).

Sources
Johannes Mathesius, Historien / Von des Ehrwirdigen in Gott Seligen thewren Manns Gottes / Doctoris Martini Luthers / anfang / lehr / leben und sterben [Nuremberg, 1566], fol. 4

Lewis W. Spitz and Helmut T. Lehmann, eds., Luther’s Works, trans. Robert R. Heitner (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1960), 34:63ff, esp. pp. 65,104

Weimarer Ausgabe 30/3:387

Quote of the Week – Rubbing God’s Ears

Philipp Melanchthon traveled to a colloquy in Hagenau after Philip of Hesse’s bigamy became known and was causing a scandal for the Lutherans. (Luther had actually recommended this bigamy for pastoral reasons—definitely not his finest moment.) The sensitive Melanchthon was so troubled by the scandal that by the time he reached Weimar he had already become so sick that he could not continue the trip. He contracted a bad fever and was bedridden.

Luther personally went to see him and arrived in Weimar on June 23, 1540. He found Melanchthon deathly ill, unrecognizable, and unable to hear or speak. Luther later said in one of his table talks that Melanchthon’s eyes had already dimmed like a dead person’s. After Luther expressed his shock, Matthaeus Ratzeberger, court physician for Duke John Frederick I of Saxony and eyewitness to what happened, says that Luther went to the window in the room and prayed an especially bold and earnest prayer. Luther himself seems to have felt the need to explain the boldness of the prayer afterwards either to everyone in the room or privately to Ratzeberger:

Our Lord God had to stand there and take it from me there, for I threw the sack at his door and rubbed his ears with all the promises to hear and answer prayers that I could recount from Holy Scripture, so that he had to hear and answer me if I was going to trust his promises in other matters too.

Luther then took Philipp by the hand and said, “Cheer up, Philipp, you are not going to die.” He then gave him a short address.

Philipp seemed to regain his breath at this. When Luther ran to get him something to eat, Philipp refused it, so Luther threatened him: “Listen here, Philipp, here’s how it is: You are going to eat for me or I am going to put you under the ban.”

Melanchthon gave in, and from then on he began to recover.

Sources
Christian Gotthold Neudecker, ed., Die handschriftliche Geschichte Ratzeberger’s über Luther und seine Zeit (Jena: Druck und Verlag von Friedrich Mauke, 1850), pp. 103,104

Weimarer Ausgabe, Tischreden 5:129, no. 5407

Quote of the Week – Please Prove Me Wrong

This week’s quote comes from a long letter Martin Luther wrote to Elector Frederick the Wise, Duke of Saxony, on November 19, 1518. Luther historian Martin Brecht says that it is “without a doubt one of the greatest Luther letters” (Martin Luther: His Road to Reformation, p. 262). In it, Luther recounts his hearing before Cardinal Thomas Cajetan and defends his own words and actions there. After his accounting, and asserting that there was nothing he neglected to do except fulfill the cardinal’s demand to recant, he continues:

As for the rest, let the most honorable Legatine Lord [i.e. Cardinal Cajetan] or the supreme Pontiff himself condemn, teach, and interpret, but they should not merely say, “You have erred. What you said is wrong.” They should rather point out the error in my writings; they should show what I said that was wrong, cite the proof that they have, reply to the Scripture passages I have quoted; they should do the teaching they boastfully say they have done; they should instruct the man who desires, begs, wishes, and longs to be taught. Not even a [Muslim] Turk would deny me these things. When I am led to see that matters need to be understood in a different way than I have understood them, if I do not recant and do not condemn myself then, most illustrious Prince, then let Your Highness be the first to persecute me and expel me; let the men of our university [in Wittenberg] repudiate me; indeed, I invoke heaven and earth against myself, and may my Lord Jesus Christ himself destroy me. I too speak on the basis of certain knowledge, and not on the basis of opinions. I want neither the Lord God nor any creature of God to be favorably disposed toward me, if I do not conform after someone has taught me better than what I have learned.

Source
Dr. Wilhelm Martin Leberecht de Wette, ed., Dr. Martin Luthers Briefe, Sendschreiben und Bedenken (Berlin: G. Reimer, 1825), no. 95, p. 184

Cf. St. Louis Edition of Luther’s Works, vol. 15, no. 238, col. 650.

Quote of the Week – Nurturing Hope

This week’s quote is excerpted from one of the table talks of Martin Luther recorded by his personal friend and secretary Veit Dietrich. The entire table talk, which treats of how a Christian deals with melancholy, is one of the more well known and worth a read (rf. no. 122, LW [AE] 54:16ff). At the time Luther spoke it, Johannes Bugenhagen was on a leave of absence and Luther himself was quite overwhelmed with all his additional duties.

Well then, that venomous spirit, he finds many ways to hurt us. I know I will see him one day, on the Last Day, along with his fiery darts. While we have pure doctrine, he cannot harm us, but if the doctrine gets ruined, then we are done for. But praise be to God, who has given us the Word, and on top of that has had his own Son die for us. He certainly did not do it for nothing. Let us therefore nurture the hope that we are saints, that we are saved, and that this will be clear when he is revealed. If he accepted the robber on the cross like he did, as well as Paul after so many blasphemies and persecutions, then we have no reason to doubt it, and in fact we all must then attain to salvation, like the robber and Paul did.

Source
Weimarer Ausgabe, Tischreden 1:48-49

Quote of the Week – Sin, Death, and Hell Swallowed Up

I apologize for not sharing any quote last week. This week’s quote is taken from Martin Luther’s Tractate on Christian Liberty (1520). Luther originally intended this tractate as a devotional work to accompany a conciliatory letter to Pope Leo X, at the suggestion of papal nuncio Karl von Miltitz. Luther’s own German translation, On the Freedom of the Christian Person, is more widely read, but the original Latin is clearer and more complete (cf. LW 31:329ff).

[S]ince Christ is God and man, and is so in a person who has not sinned nor dies nor is condemned, for that matter is unable to sin, die, or be condemned, and his righteousness, life, and salvation is unconquerable, eternal, and omnipotent; since, I say, such a person shares in his bride’s sins, death, and hell, and on account of his ring of faithfulness even makes them his own and situates himself in them in no other way than as if they were his own and he himself had sinned – suffering, dying, and descending to hell that he might conquer them all – and sin, death, and hell are unable to swallow him up, then by necessity they have been swallowed up in him in an amazing battle. For his righteousness is greater than the sins of all people; his life is more powerful than all death; his salvation is more invincible than all hell.

Source
Weimarer Ausgabe 7:55

Quote of the Week – Let It Rain Enemies

The following is taken from Martin Luther’s letter to Elector Frederick the Wise, penned at Borna and dated March 5, 1522. While Luther was “kidnapped” at the Wartburg Castle, his university colleague Andreas Karlstadt was rushing forward with all sorts of changes in worship that the people were not ready for. The neighboring Duke George of Leipzig in Albertine Saxony, a devoted Catholic, heard about the changes and vowed to put an end to them and to “the Lutheran heresy.” Thus Martin Luther decided to return to Wittenberg from the safety of the castle—at risk to his life, since he was still an outlaw—so as to put a stop to the hasty changes and restore order in Wittenberg, and to stop the slanders of Duke George. Elector Frederick the Wise did not want Luther to return, but here is what Luther had to say, as he was already on his way back to Wittenberg…

[T]he devil knows quite well that I did not [hide out in the Wartburg Castle] out of any fear. He could see my heart just fine when I entered Worms; he saw that if I had known that as many devils were lying in wait for me as there are tiles on the roofs, I still would have jumped right into their midst with joy.

Now Duke George is still far from the equal of a single devil. And since the Father of boundless mercy has made us gallant lords over all the devils and death through the gospel, and has given us such a wealth of confidence that we may dare to address him, “Dearest Father!”, Your Electoral Grace can see for himself that it is the greatest insult to such a Father not to trust him enough to know that we are also lords over Duke George’s wrath.

I know this much about myself at any rate: If affairs were the same in Leipzig as they are in Wittenberg, I would still ride right in, even if (Your Electoral Grace will pardon my silly speech) it rained nothing but Duke Georges for nine days and each one were nine times as furious as the one we have. He treats my Lord Christ like a doll-man woven out of straw; my Lord and I can certainly endure that for a while.

Source
Weimarer Ausgabe, Briefwechsel 2:455

Quote of the Week – Worthily, Not Worthy

The following is taken from A Sermon on the New Testament, that is, on the Holy Mass (1520) by Martin Luther. The work as a whole does not yet represent Luther’s mature thought on the Lord’s Supper, but it does “replace the traditional notion of the mass as a sacrifice with the scriptural teaching of the Lord’s Supper as a testament” (LW 35:77). The very first paragraph is also a masterpiece on the purpose and limitations of the law, and may appear in a subsequent Quote of the Week. In the quote that follows, from paragraph or section 15, Luther helps us to distinguish between taking the Lord’s Supper in a worthy manner (cf. 1 Corinthians 11:27) and taking it as intrinsically worthy people (which we neither can nor do).

Now if one of these two thoughts should assail you (since even [when we believe Christ’s testament in the Lord’s Supper] these thoughts do not leave)—the first, that you are way too unworthy of such a rich testament, and second, even if you were worthy, what it gives is still so great that human nature shudders when confronted by the greatness of the gifts (for what can be missing when there is forgiveness of all sins and eternal life?)—then, like I said, you must pay more attention to the words of Christ than to such thoughts. He will not lie to you; your thoughts will deceive you.¹ If a thousand gulden [or $300,000] were bequeathed to a poor beggar or even to a buffoon, he would not claim it out of his own merit or worthiness, nor would he relinquish it on account of how great the gift was. And if anyone would throw his unworthiness and the greatness of the gift in his face, he would certainly not let any of this scare him away and would say, “How is this your business? I know very well that I am unworthy of the testament. I do not claim it on the basis of my merit, as if anyone owed it to me, but on the basis of the favor and grace of the testator. If he did not think it was too much to bequeath to me, why should I despise myself so, and not claim and take it?”

Source
Weimarer Ausgabe 6:361,362

Endnote
¹ Luther has this, intentionally or not, in the form of a memorable rhyme: Er wirt dir nit liegen, deyn gedanckenn werden dich triegen.

Quote of the Week – Predestination Made Certain in Christ

In the Scriptures, the doctrine of election is taught as a comfort for souls troubled by their sins and oppressed by the cross. However, we often end up doing precisely that – troubling our souls – whenever we attempt to find the answer to the question, “How do I know I’m one of the elect?” anywhere but in the Scriptures themselves. The following excerpt answers this question from the Scriptures. It is taken from the Formula of Concord, Solid Declaration, Article XI (The Eternal Predestination and Election of God), verses 65 and 66. It should also be stated that the doctrine of election was never intended to be a security blanket thrown over a sinful lifestyle, and those who use it that way are misusing it and are on the path to forfeiting its comfort.

Accordingly this eternal election by God should be considered in Christ, and not outside of or apart from Christ. For it is in Christ that God has elected us, the holy apostle Paul testifies, before the foundation of the world was laid [cf. Ephesians 1:4], and it is written that the Lord has loved us “in the Beloved One” [Ephesians 1:6]. But this election is revealed to us from heaven through the proclaimed Word, when the heavenly Father says, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. Listen to him” [Matthew 17:5]. And Christ says, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will refresh you.” And about the Holy Spirit Christ says, “He will glorify me, for he will take from what is mine and will proclaim it to you” [John 16:14], and he “will remind you of everything I have said to you” [John 14:26]. And so the entire Holy Trinity—God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—directs all people to Christ as the Book of Life in whom they should seek out and learn the Father’s eternal election. For already from eternity the Father has decreed that the one he is going to save, he is going to save through Christ, as Christ himself says, “No one comes to the Father except through me” [John 14:6], and in another place, “I am the gate; if anyone enters through me, he will be saved” [John 10:9].

Source
Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, 2nd ed. (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1955), p. 1082.

Quote of the Week – Grace Means Unearned

The following is taken from Philipp Melanchthon’s Apology (or Defense) of the Augsburg Confession, Article IV (Justification), verses 40 and 41:

Since then no one is able to keep God’s law by his own powers, and all are under sin and deserve to be condemned to eternal wrath and death, we are therefore unable to be freed from sin or to become upright in God’s sight through the law. Instead, forgiveness of sins and righteousness is promised through Christ, who has been given for us to pay for the sins of the world and who is the only Mediator and Redeemer. And this promise does not say that you have grace, salvation, etc. through Christ if you earn it. No, he offers forgiveness of sins purely out of grace, as Paul says, “If [forgiveness of sins] is by works, then it is not grace” [Romans 11:6]. And in another place: “This righteousness that avails before God is revealed apart from law” [Romans 3:21], that is, forgiveness of sins is offered for free.

Source
Die Bekenntnisschriften der evangelisch-lutherischen Kirche, 2nd ed. (Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1955), p. 167,168