A Short History of the World in 50 Lies

by Natasha Tidd

Kramer and Scheuberin had already crossed paths – upon his arrival in Innsbruck she had urged the community not to attend his sermons and had even suggested that if anyone was a witch, it was Kramer; after all, he was the one obsessed with them. Kramer accused Scheuberin of using witchcraft to commit murder, and as evidence, he delved into her sex life, claiming sexual immorality. This didn’t go down well at the trial. The Innsbruck officials were incensed by Kramer using a woman’s sexual history as a means to prove witchcraft. This might seem surprising for 1485, especially as women’s rights were minimal at best, and for the officials, this really wasn’t a question of gender equality, but what counted as heresy. Kramer might say that Scheuberin’s sexual history proved heresy, but that was based on his word alone. Kramer was here to find witches, not to punish women based on his own classifications of correct female behaviour and so Scheuberin was acquitted. An infuriated Kramer would not let the ruling lie.