DE LELLI, Teodoro. — Bishop, theologian, and jurist, born in Teramo around 1427, died in Rome on March 31, 1466. Having earned a degree in both civil and canon law at Padua, he soon became an auditor of the Roman Rota. In the curia, he undertook many assignments, which he carried out with prudence and skill. In 1462, Pius II appointed him Bishop of Feltre and entrusted him with delicate diplomatic missions to Venice and France, in the presence of Louis XI. Paul II, of whom he was the closest collaborator, transferred him to the see of Treviso, but an incurable illness led him to the grave in the prime of his life. He was buried at Santa Maria Nuova, where his epitaph can still be read.
Endowed with uncommon intellect, though immersed in intense diplomatic and forensic activity, he wrote three works in defense of the primacy and infallibility of the pope and of his superiority over the council and the college of cardinals, at a time when conciliar theories were also accepted by well-intentioned minds: *Tractatus contra pragmaticam sanctionem* (cod. Vat. lat. 3878, ff. 81-96): he refutes the objections of French regalists against the reservations of the Holy See; *Replica Th. L. pro Pio II et Sede Romana* (ed. Frcher-Struve, in MGH, Scriptores, II, pp. 214-28: a very imperfect edition): a strong argument in favor of the Head of the Church; *Contra supercilium* (cod. 27, CC. bibl. Lolliniana of Belluno): a treatise in two parts against the cardinals, in which he recalls their origin and office as advisors to the Roman pontiff. As a good Christian humanist, he oversaw the edition of the treatises and letters of St. Jerome (Parma 1480). He also left a considerable number of unpublished orations and letters, as well as a *Summarium* of the trial of St. Joan of Arc (cod. Vat. lat. 3878, ff. 41-61).