Roman Empire

The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy nor an Empire nor Roman.

Ok, you got my attention. Care to explain?

Probably doesn't belong to this page since 'Roman Empire' will be understood by most people as the Principate. 'Holy Roman Empire' refers to a very different entity about a millennium after the Western Roman Empire fell. The Holy Roman Empire was a loose collection of kingdoms governed by the Catholic Church.

Governed is probably too strong a word. The Church (according to the docs) dealt with religious matters, the Emperor with secular, and they were often at odds. So it wasn't holy (at the best of times, that was the Church), it wasn't an Empire (not being more than loosely held by either Pope or Emperor), and it wasn't Roman (again, that was the Church; the Emperor's power base was Germany and the Piedmont) (and as for the millennial time lag, in the XXth century Germany had a kaiser, and Russia a tsar, both derived from caesar) We will leave discussion of SeparationOfChurchAndState for an essay on monads.

WhatHaveTheRomansEverDoneForUs?

CategoryHistory