Holy Roman Emperor

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:

    The angel said to her, “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you; therefore the child to be born will be holy; he will be called Son of God.”
    Bible: New Testament, Luke 1:35.

    He wrote in prison, not a History of the World, like Raleigh, but an American book which I think will live longer than that. I do not know of such words, uttered under such circumstances, and so copiously withal, in Roman or English or any history.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    Let be be finale of seem.
    The only emperor is the emperor of ice-cream.
    Wallace Stevens (1879–1955)