DELFINO, CESARE PIETRO MICHELE. - Controversialist, born in Parma on an uncertain date, died in Rome in 1566. He devoted himself first to medicine and the sciences, then to theological studies. He spent several years in England and Germany, spreading Catholic thought. Persecuted and stripped of his possessions, he was forced to return to Venice, where he was warmly received.
He sought the favor of Paul III and Julius III, to whom he dedicated a small work: *De proportione Papae ad concilium et de utroque eiusdem principatu certissima et novissima decisio* (Parma 1550), against the caesaropapist aims of Henry VIII. It is found in G. T. Roccaberti, *Bibliotheca maxima pontificum*, VII, Rome 1698, pp. 8-26. Previously, he had written hymns in honor of the Madonna, *Mariados* (3 vols., Venice 1537), and *De summo romani pontificis primatu et de ipsius temporali ditione demonstratio* (ibid. 1547).