ZACCARIA DELFINO. — Cardinal, born in Venice on 29 May 1527, died in Rome on 19 December 1583. He was bishop of Lesina. In July 1560 he was appointed nuncio to Vienna to the Emperor Ferdinand I with the task of obtaining his assent for the reopening of the Council of Trent. The emperor’s strong resistance led to the accusation that D. had not defended the Pope’s ideas with sufficient energy. In the end, however, he succeeded in obtaining the desired agreement. He was then sent into central and upper Germany to summon the ecclesiastical and lay princes to the Council, while John Commendone was entrusted with lower Germany, Belgium, and the Rhineland.
At Ferdinand’s behest, the two nuncios attended the Protestant assembly at Naumburg, where they achieved nothing owing to the hostility of those present. The same negative attitude was shown by the Protestant cities visited by D. Remaining resident nuncio in Vienna, D. played a leading part in the laborious negotiations between the Pope and the emperor during the Council. In 1563, when the Pope sought the emperor’s consent to conclude the Council, D. obtained II. To persuade Ferdinand, D. had even promised concessions regarding the use of the chalice by the laity and the marriage of priests. The emperor believed that the Pope had secretly authorized D., especially since the latter had provided him with a draft of the letters of request. The Pope, however, while willing to make concessions on the chalice, was not disposed to grant the other request, and when Maximilian II, who succeeded Ferdinand, renewed it with D.’s support, the Pope responded with the decree of 18 May 1565 against the servility of nuncios. The emperor’s protection nonetheless secured D.’s promotion to the cardinalate on 26 June of the same year. This promotion, moreover, enabled the Pope to recall D. from Vienna, for though he had shown himself a skilful diplomat, he had been too compliant with the wishes of the sovereign to whom he was accredited.