Ritual kinship can have both a social and a spiritual meaning, but it is very difficult to distinguish one from the other in practice. In Zell unter Aichelberg in the 1730s, for example, Hans Jerg Bauer was out drinking with Hans Jerg Drohmann, the godparent of his children, when the latter suborned him to murder. Such a tale, combining as it does spiritual kinship, carousing, and threats of violence, indicates that an account of godparentage has to include the complexities of social context and the ambiguities and shifting perspectives that everyday life presents to people. In his testimony, Bauer expressed shock that his spiritual patron would compromise their relationship. He said, “Godfather, you hold my children at the baptismal font and should warn me against such things.” A good point, perhaps, but irony had never characterized Bauer's relationship to his patron and drinking companion before. At least after thinking about it for a long time, Bauer considered that a godfather ought to offer moral advice and example and not lead his dependent astray. A case like this one offers a rare glimpse into some of the values and expectations surrounding the institution of spiritual or ritual kinship and introduces a few of its ambivalences and contradictions. Even the fact that it was not unusual to use the address “godfather” in everyday life is something one can only occasionally document.