DELFINO, ZACCARIA. - Cardinal, b. in Venice on 29 May 1527, d. in Rome on 19 Dec. 1583. He was bishop of Lesina. In July 1560 he was appointed nuncio in Vienna to Emperor Ferdinand I with the task of obtaining his assent to the reopening of the Council of Trent. The sovereign's strong resistance brought upon D. the accusation of not having defended the Pope's ideas with sufficient energy. In the end, however, he succeeded in obtaining the desired adherence. He was then sent to central and upper Germany to summon the ecclesiastical and lay princes to the Council, while John Commendone was charged with lower Germany, Belgium and the Rhineland.
At Ferdinand's wish the two nuncios took part in the Protestant assembly of Naumburg, where they could obtain nothing because of the hostility of those present. The Protestant cities visited by D. maintained the same negative attitude. Having remained resident nuncio in Vienna, D. played a principal 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 the conclusion of the Council, D. obtained it. To convince Ferdinand, D. had also promised him 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., all the more so since the latter had supplied him with the draft of the letters of request. But the Pope, while he was induced to make concessions regarding the chalice, was not disposed to grant the other request, and when Maximilian II, having succeeded Ferdinand, renewed it, still with D.'s support, he responded with the decree of 18 May 1565 against the servility of nuncios. The emperor's protection nevertheless procured for D. promotion to cardinal on 26 June of the same year. A promotion which, moreover, allowed the Pope to recall D. from Vienna, since he had shown himself a skillful diplomat, but too subservient to the wishes of the sovereign to whom he was accredited.