DELFINO, CESARE PIETRO MICHELE. - Controversialist, b. at Parma on an uncertain date, d. at Rome in 1566. He devoted himself to medicine and the sciences, and later to theological studies. He resided for some years in England and Germany, spreading Catholic thought. Persecuted and deprived of his possessions, he was compelled to return to Venice, where he was well received.
He sought the favor of Paolo III and Giulio 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 designs of Enrico VIII. It is found in G. T. Roccaberri, Bibliotheca maxima pontificum, VII, Rome 1698, pp. 8-26. Previously he had written songs in honor of the Madonna, Mariados (3 vols., Venice 1537), and De summo romani pontificis primatu et de ipsius temporali ditione demonstratio (ibid. 1547).