Holy Roman Empire
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Holy Roman Empire. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
often called the German Empire . It began with the coronation of Charlemagne in 800. It was renewed by Otto the Great in 962 and ended with the abdication of Francis II in 1806. The empire was in theory the political counterpart of the Holy Catholic Church. A mosaic of the tenth century hanging in the church of St. John in the Lateran of Rome represents the pope and the emperor kneeling at the footstool of Christ. With one hand, Christ bestows the keys of heaven, emblem of spiritual authority, on the pope; and with the other hand, he bestows the standard of the empire, emblem of temporal sovereignty, on the emperor. The Holy Roman Empire was a revival of the notion of a universal empire analogous to a universal church. It included in general the German speaking people of central Europe, and was connected closely with Italy. Various regions outside of Germany were included at times in the empire. The important dynasties were the Carlovingian (represented by Charlemagne; the Saxon, represented by Henry the Fowler; Otto I; the Franconian line, including Henrys III, IV, and V; the Hohenstaufen, represented by Frederick Barbarossa; the Hapsburgs, including Maximilian I and Charles V. Neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.--Voltaire. The theory of the Medieval Empire is that of a universal Christian monarchy. The Roman Empire and the Catholic Church are two aspects of one society, a society ordained by the Divine Will to spread itself over the whole world. At the head of this society in its temporal character, as an empire, stands the temporal chief of Christendom, the Roman Caesar. At its head in its spiritual character, as a church, stands the spiritual chief of Christendom, the Roman Pontiff. Caesar and Pontiff, alike, rule by divine right, each as God's immediate vicar within his own sphere. Each is bound to the other by the closest ties. . . . And each of these lofty offices is open to every baptized man; each alike is purely elective. . . . Here is a conception as magnificent as it was impractical.--E. A. Freeman.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a title which the German Empire received in 902 when Otho I. was crowned at Rome by Pope John XII. It came to an end when Francis II. became hereditary emperor of Austria in 1804.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
The bare narrative in Aiton's 1910 entry still holds, though Collier's 1921 summary garbles two dates: Otto I was crowned at Rome in 962, not 902, and while Francis II took the hereditary Austrian imperial title in 1804, he did not abdicate the Roman crown until 1806, under pressure from Napoleon. What has really moved is the judgement. Voltaire's jibe that the Empire was "neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire" — quoted approvingly by Aiton's — and Freeman's verdict that the whole conception was "impractical" have been steadily overturned since the 1990s, most prominently by Peter Wilson's Heart of Europe (2016), which argues the Empire's loose, layered sovereignty kept peace across central Europe for centuries and prefigures federal arrangements rather than failing to be a nation-state. Aiton's habit of calling it "the German Empire" also reads oddly now: that name belongs to the state of 1871–1918, which had already collapsed by the time Collier's went to press.
Written for this edition, 2026.