Serbia. John was mandated to negotiate in Ras and convert Vukan, the Serbian courtiers, noblemen and clergy, releasing them from obedience to the Patriarch. Pope Innocent simultaneously sent a letter to Vukan, where he declared that the arriving John negotiates on his behalf and represents the interests of the Roman Curia. In this assignment, John has not achieved substantial success; the pope expressed his disappointment that did not hear of any positive developments in his letter to Emeric in the next year. On 25 February 1204, Innocent entrusted his Bulgarian legate Cardinal Leo Brancaleoni to extend his operation over Serbia too. In 1205, John sought to merge the "heretic" diocese in the "land of the sons of knez Belo" to the Roman Catholic Church, which laid south of the archbishopric (possibly in Serbia at the border). Theologian József Udvardy considered that this "Belo" is identical with the late Ban Beloš. On 3 May, Innocent approved the intention. Nevertheless, the papal policy remained inefficient, and later the autocephalous Serbian Orthodox Church emerged by 1219, under the influence of Stefan the First-Crowned and his brother Saint Sava, its first archbishop. During the short episcopate of John, the tension between the sees Esztergom and Kalocsa over the diverging views in the question of primacy jurisdiction reached its peak. It appears that John tried to take advantage of the situation that Emeric's relationship with Job, Archbishop of Esztergom has deteriorated drastically, most likely because he remained neutral in the power struggle between the king and his younger brother, and stayed away from the secular affairs. Meanwhile, John was considered a loyal partisan of Emeric. Some scholars argue Job pronouncedly turned against the monarch and joined Duke Andrew's court, as Emeric referred to Job as his "enemy" in his letter to Pope Innocent around 1202, when offered the royal provostries and abbeys under the supervision of Esztergom to Rome directly. Under these conditions, the rivalry between Esztergom and Kalocsa became part of a wider secular power struggle in Hungary. An episode of this conflict was recorded, when Job's episcopal blessing in a royal church, which laid in the territory of the Archdiocese of Esztergom, was interrupted by John "with noiseness", who marched into the cathedral with his entourage and blessed the people himself. On another occasion, John entrusted his two suffragan bishops to consecrate churches which belonged to Esztergom. John unduly wore pallium and used