As long as the Pope was a fugitive in France, dependent on the bounty of his adherents, the King had hoped that his necessities would compel him to abandon the Primate.  But the antipope was now dead; and though the Emperor had raised up a second in the person of Guido of Crema, Alexander had returned to Italy, and recovered possession of Rome.  Henry therefore resolved to try the influence of terror, by threatening to espouse the cause of Guido.  He even opened a correspondence with the Emperor; and in a general diet at Wuerzburg his ambassadors made oath in the name of their master, that he would reject Alexander, and obey the authority of his rival.  Of this fact there cannot be a doubt.  It was announced to the German nations by an imperial edict, and is attested by an eye-witness, who from the council wrote to the Pope a full account of the transaction.

Henry, however, soon repented of his precipitancy.  In 1167 his bishops refused to disgrace themselves by transferring their obedience at the nod of their prince; and he was unwilling to involve himself in a new and apparently a hopeless quarrel.  To disguise or excuse his conduct he disavowed the act, attributed it to his envoys, and afterward induced them also to deny it.  John of Oxford was despatched to Rome, who, in the presence of Alexander, swore that at Wuerzburg he had done nothing contrary to the faith of the Church or to the honor and service of the Pontiff.

His next expedient was one which had been prohibited by the Constitutions of Clarendon.  He repeatedly authorized his bishops to appeal in their name and his own from the judgment of the Archbishop to that of the Pope.  By this means the authority of that prelate was provisionally suspended; and though his friends maintained that these appeals were not vested with the conditions required by the canons, they were always admitted by Alexander.  The King improved the delay to purchase friends.  By the Pontiff his presents were indignantly refused:  they were accepted by some of the cardinals, by the free states in Italy, and by several princes and barons supposed to possess influence in the papal councils.

On some occasions Henry threw himself and his cause on the equity of Alexander; at others he demanded and obtained legates to decide the controversy in France.  Twice he condescended to receive the Primate, and to confer with him on the subject.  To avoid altercation, it was agreed that no mention should be made of the “customs”; but each mistrusted the other.  Henry was willing to preserve the liberties of the Church “saving the dignity of his crown”; and the Archbishop was equally willing to obey the King, “saving the rights of the Church.”  In the second conference these cautionary clauses were omitted; the terms were satisfactorily adjusted, and the Primate, as he was about to depart, requested of his sovereign the kiss of peace.  It was the usual termination of such discussions, the bond by which the contending parties sealed their reconciliation.  But Henry coldly replied that he had formerly sworn never to give it him; and that he was unwilling to incur the guilt of perjury.  So flimsy an evasion could deceive no one; and the Primate departed in the full conviction that no reliance could be placed on the King’s sincerity.