At first the emperor haughtily refused to grant these conditions; then, on further reflection, offered to abide by the decision of a committee of arbitration, to consist of six cardinals chosen by the pope, and six bishops chosen by himself. But Adrian, as Frederic foresaw and reckoned upon, at once rejected this offer, as derogatory to the dignity of a supreme Pontiff, which, regarded by christendom as superior to every temporal jurisdiction, could not therefore bow to one. At the same time, he reminded the Emperor of his concordat with Pope Eugenius, and called on him to stand to it. Frederic rejoined, that he considered himself exonerated from it, as Adrian had been the first to break it by his treaty of peace with the king of Sicily. That this charge was a false one, has already been shown. The Emperor persisted in his proposition for a committee of arbitration. As both parties continued inflexible, all prospect of a reconciliation vanished. Indeed, measures of a hostile character seemed on the point of being resorted to on both sides. For while Frederic gave audience to a republican embassy from Rome, and appeared to listen favourably to the overtures made; Adrian openly exhorted the Lombards to persevere in their resistance to the emperor, and formed fresh relations with the king of Sicily. He also addressed a brief to the archbishops of Mayence, Cologne, and Treves, in which he gives his feelings full vent, and asserts the superiority of his dignity over the emperor's, in the true spirit of the hierarchy of that age.