 He regarded lay investiture as the principal barrier to completing the reform of the Church and challenged royal appointments, taking advantage of individual complaints against German prelates.Henry's Italian chancellor, Bishop Gregory of Vercelli, and an assembly of the German bishops, urged the King to declare Gregory's election invalid, because he had been proclaimed pope by the Romans instead of being elected by the cardinals.The German dukes and Godfrey the Bearded's influential widow, Beatrice of Tuscany, convinced Henry that he should cooperate with the Pope.