In the wake of the ecclesiastical mission, a party of noblemen from Pavia traveled north to meet Conrad. According to Wipo of Burgundy, the Italian kingship was not compatible with the German throne. Italy was a separate nation from Germany with its own identity. The emissaries justified the actions of their fellow citizens by claiming that Pavia had always been loyal to the Italian king, as long as the king was alive and present, and that the revolt had taken place when the Italian throne was vacant. Conrad rejected the argument, that just as a ship remains devoted to its captain after his death, the Empire remains imperial property after the death of an emperor. The kingdom of Italy, according to Conrad, belonged to the empire as a matter of legal right. In his "Constitutio de feudis" ("Edict on the Benefices of the Italian Kingdom") of 1038 he would determine his regulations of the feudal contracts in Italy. Conrad also declared that the Ostrogothic palace was property of the Empire and therefore the king had the right to punish those responsible for its destruction. The Pavian embassy returned to Italy in opposition to Salian rule.