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