Background
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. Binsfeld grew up in the predominantly Catholic environment of the Eifel region.
Career
Considered by a local abbot as a very gifted boy, Peter Binsfeld was sent to Rome for study. Binsfeld wrote the influential treatise De confessionibus maleficorum et sagarum (Of the Confessions of Warlocks and Witches), translated into several languages (Trier, 1589). This work discussed the confessions of alleged witches, and claimed that even if such confessions were produced by torture, they should still be believed.
He also encouraged denouncements.
Contrary to other authors of the time, Binsfeld doubted the ability of shapeshifting and the validity of the diabolical mark. In 1589 Binsfield published an influential list of demons and their associated sins, including the demons associated with the Seven Deadly Sins: Lucifer (pride), Mammon (greed), Asmodeus (lust), Leviathan (envy), Beelzebub (gluttony), Satan (wrath) and Belphegor (sloth).
Views
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.