Unsurprisingly given Kramer’s humiliation in Innsbruck, Malleus Maleficarum also details how women, as the weaker sex, are far more likely to be witches than men. The most common candidate for witchcraft was an outspoken woman, one with a bad reputation, a high sex drive, or rumoured sex life beyond the boundaries of marriage. Concrete evidence wasn’t needed to bring charges; a rumour was enough, and when confessions were not forthcoming, Kramer advocated torture or lying to the condemned as means of extraction.
