The Holy Roman Emperor (Latin: Imperator Romanus Sacer) is a term used by historians to denote a medieval ruler who had also received the title of "Emperor of the Romans" from the Pope. After the 16th century, this elected monarch governed the Holy Roman Empire, a Central European union of territories of the Medieval and Early Modern period. In the feudal hierarchy, a medieval Holy Roman Emperor was primus inter pares (first among equals) among the other medieval Roman Catholic monarchs; he was the "Senior Monarch in (Catholic) Christendom" and the "secular arm of the Catholic Church".
Read more about Holy Roman Emperor: Title, Succession, List of Emperors, Coronation
Famous quotes containing the words holy, roman and/or emperor:
“O, better that her shattered hulk
Should sink beneath the wave;
Her thunders shook the mighty deep,
And there should be her grave;
Nail to the mast her holy flag,
Set every threadbare sail,
And give her to the god of storms,
The lightning and the gale!”
—Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809–1894)
“My first childish doubt as to whether God could really be a good Protestant was suggested by my observation of the deplorable fact that the best voices available for combination with my mother’s in the works of the great composers had been unaccountably vouchsafed to Roman Catholics.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“In those days a decree went out from Emperor Augustus that all the world should be registered.”
—Bible: New Testament, Luke 2:1.