"The Holy Roman Empire was in no way holy, nor Roman, nor an empire," wrote Voltaire, and this interpretation still dominates the popular imagination, so the Holy Roman Empire is treated as a bad joke, a pale parody of the glory of Rome. But was Voltaire right? Here we will explore the ideology that explains, and perhaps justifies, the name.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original content at https://www.worldhistory.org/article/1786/the-ideology-of-the-holy-roman-empire/.