Peter, a son of a farmer and craftsman, was born in the village of Binsfeld in the rural Eifel region, located in the modern state of Rhineland-Palatinate; he died in Trier as a victim of the bubonic plague.
After his studies, Binsfeld returned to his home region and became an important personality in the anti-Protestant Catholic activities of the late 16th century.
Binsfeld was one of the main drivers of the Trier witch trials that ravaged the area under the dominion of Archbishop Johann von Schönenberg between 1581-93.
Binsfeld wrote the influential treatise De confessionibus maleficorum et sagarum ('Of the Confessions of Warlocks and Witches'),[3] translated into several languages (Trier, 1589).
This point of view can be considered as moderate, taking into account that some tribunals had condemned children between two and five years of age to be burnt at the stake.