The Hungarian monarch squeezed out significant church government concessions for himself in exchange for switching sides and pledging support for Pope Alexander III against the Ghibelline Antipope Victor IV.
Frederick's envoy, Daniel of Prague traveled to Hungary for the third time in the second half of March 1160 in order to convince Géza to support the anti-pope and to recognize the decisions of the Council of Pavia.
[7] At the Council of Toulouse in the autumn of 1160, Henry II of England and Louis VII of France declared Alexander III pope, and pronounced excommunication upon Victor IV.
"Papal legates Pietro di Miso and Giulio of Palestrina arrived to Hungary for the second time in late summer or early autumn 1161.The public purpose of their embassy was to confirm Lucas as Archbishop of Esztergom and bring the pallium to him.
At the same time, in order to be recognized by the Hungarian king, Pope Alexander offered Géza significant church government concessions, and his cardinals presumably came to Hungary to clarify and finalize the details of this.
[21] Historian László Gálos claimed no concordat was concluded in 1161, as "significant concessions were out of place in a century when the church was fighting its own battle for its primacy and independence".
However, John of Salisbury and Thomas Becket protested against the "abuses" committed by the Sicilian and Hungarian monarchs in their letter to Pope Alexander III.
A letter of imperial notary Burchard to Nicholas, abbot of Siegburg mentions that "ill-fated Roland [i.e. Pope Alexander III] granted the Hungarian [king] the privilege of donating and giving the archbishopric shoulder straps to the archbishops of Hungary, as often as they choose [such]; and the bishops and ecclesiastics there should be able to negotiate with the Romans [Holy See] only by his will and through him".
[21][23] Additionally, German theologian Gerhoh of Reichersberg, a strong advocate of Gregorian ideas, mentions in his work De investigatione Anti-Christi libri III that "[...] the kingdom of Hungarians have so separated themselves [from the papacy] that they do not accept appeals of this kind or admit embassies burdening monasteries or other abodes of God's servants".
[24] Historian Sándor Hunyadi argued Hartvik's official hagiography of Saint Stephen I of Hungary may have had an influence on the demands of the king's ecclesiastical jurisdiction, which also reflected on the Sicilian church reforms.
Under different circumstances than his father Géza, Stephen III concluded a concordat with the Holy See in 1169, renouncing the control of the appointment of the prelates and thereby repealing the agreement of 1161.