o a man in three ways. First, so that he knows
not the drink to be immoderate and intoxicating: and then drunkenness
may be without sin, as stated above (A. 1). Secondly, so that he
perceives the drink to be immoderate, but without knowing it to be
intoxicating, and then drunkenness may involve a venial sin. Thirdly,
it may happen that a man is well aware that the drink is immoderate
and intoxicating, and yet he would rather be drunk than abstain from
drink. Such a man is a drunkard properly speaking, because morals
take their species not from things that occur accidentally and beside
the intention, but from that which is directly intended. In this way
drunkenness is a mortal sin, because then a man willingly and
knowingly deprives himself of the use of reason, whereby he performs
virtuous deeds and avoids sin, and thus he sins mortally by running
the risk of falling into sin. For Ambrose says (De Patriarch. [*De
Abraham i.]): "We learn that we should shun drunkenness, which
prevents us from avoiding grievous sins. For the things we avoid when
sober, we unknowingly commit through drunkenness." Therefore
drunkenness, properly speaking, is a mortal sin.

Reply Obj. 1: Assiduity makes drunkenness a mortal sin, not on
account of the mere repetition of the act, but because it is
impossible for a man to become drunk assiduously, without exposing
himself to drunkenness knowingly and willingly, since he has many
times experienced the strength of wine and his own liability to
drunkenness.

Reply Obj. 2: To take more meat or drink than is necessary belongs to
the vice of gluttony, which is not always a mortal sin: but knowingly
to take too much drink to the point of being drunk, is a mortal sin.
Hence Augustine says (Confess. x, 31): "Drunkenness is far from me:
Thou wilt have mercy, that it come not near me. But full feeding
sometimes hath crept upon Thy servant."

Reply Obj. 3: As stated above (Q. 141, A. 6), meat and drink should
be moderate in accordance with the demands of the body's health.
Wherefore, just as it happens sometimes that the meat and drink which
are moderate for a healthy man are immoderate for a sick man, so too
it may happen conversely, that what is excessive for a healthy man is
moderate for one that is ailing. In this way when a man eats or
drinks much at the physician's advice in order to provoke vomiting,
he is not to be deemed to have taken excessive meat or drink. There
is, however, no need for int