The eighth resurrection of the Roman Empire under Napoleon had come and gone. According to the Bible, two more revivals would have to take place before Christ could come back. And so, the ninth, but short-lived revival occurred in the 20th century, over 100 years after Napoleon, under Mussolini and Hitler.

The Ninth Revival under Mussolini and Hitler

Technically, it was Benito Mussolini under whom the ninth revival of the Roman Empire took place, but he was of course greatly supported in this by Adolf Hitler.

The Living World of History states the following about Mussolini:

“Benito Mussolini, the son of a blacksmith, was a man of violent and boastful character, fiery patriotism and flaming ambition. Supported by the bludgeon of his blackshirted Fascist gangs (named after fasces, or rods, which in ancient Roman times had been carried before the chief magistrates), he seized power in 1922 and set himself up as dictator… He even entertained fantastic ideas about reviving the glory of the ancient Roman Empire. In 1935-6, cynically disregarding the solemn covenant of the League of Nations, he invaded and annexed Abyssinia [modern Ethiopia]…”

John Kirshon, a journalist/editor with more than 25 years of experience at the Associated Press, The New York Times and CBS News, wrote the following in March of 2010:

“With financial support from employers squeezed by trade unions and corrupt politicians, Mussolini developed a loyal following among disenchanted, angry, mostly lower-middle-class conservatives and veterans, as well as the military, the business elite, and the right wing. He promised them he would end disorder and corruption, and recreate the glory of the Roman Empire… Among his admirers was Adolf Hitler, who introduced the Roman salute to his Nazis and dressed his bodyguard in black shirts… [Mussolini’s] dream of a new Roman Empire led to the conquest of Ethiopia in 1935-36 in defiance of the League of Nations. In 1936, he sent troops to support General Franco in the Spanish Civil War. In 1939, he invaded Albania. By the end of the 1930s, Mussolini had moved closer to Hitler and Nazi Germany.

“Although wary of German power, Mussolini agreed to the Rome-Berlin Axis, or Pact of Steel, and on June 10, 1940, led Italy into World War II on the side of the Axis… King Victor Emmanuel discharged Mussolini as head of state on July 25, 1943. He was arrested and jailed, but rescued by German commandos. Then, he became head of the Hitler-installed Italian Social Republic in northern Italy…

“Grandeur for Mussolini meant empire building. In 1934 Mussolini said, ‘After the Rome of the Caesars, after that of the Popes, today there is a new Rome, Fascist Rome’… His dream was to be called Mare Nostrum or, ‘Our Mediterranean’, extending from Palestine to Egypt and throughout parts of Africa… Mussolini’s recreation of a Roman Empire was commemorated by the monumental construction of the Via dell’Impero.

“Mussolini attempted to turn monuments of Augustan Rome into symbols of the fascist doctrine. His goals in doing so were to validate his role as the founder of a new Roman empire … He recognized in himself a parallel to the Roman emperors, Augustus in particular… During the speech he delivered upon the installation of the first fascist governor of Rome on December 31st, 1925, he made his plans for a new Rome public: ‘Within five years Rome must strike all the nations of the world as a source of wonder: huge, well organized, powerful, as it was at the time of the Augustan Empire….’

“The Via dell’Impero was opened in 1932 to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the March on Rome. The overall point of the imperial boulevard was to establish and promote a relationship between the glory of ancient Rome and Mussolini’s Fascist Regime. The broad thoroughfare physically connects the most identifiable ancient symbol of the Coliseum with Mussolini’s Fascist headquarters in Piazza Venezia. More importantly it was a figurative symbol to seamlessly show the continuity of the Roman Empire.”

The following is stated in “The History of Europe and the Church” (Worldwide Church of God, ed. 1984):

“He perceived himself as a modern-day Caesar… He shaves his head to make himself look more like Caesar… He dreams of a modern Roman Empire, of repeating the great days of ancient Rome. The handshake is abolished and the old Roman salute with raised arm becomes the official greeting… Following the example of ancient Rome, some of Mussolini’s Fascist supporters even call him ‘divine Caesar.’ [As we will see, he even came to believe himself to be a god.]… [Following Italy’s defeat of Ethiopia] Mussolini now proclaims another resurrection of the Roman Empire.”

Turning to Mussolini’s beliefs and his collaboration with the Catholic Church, we are introduced to remarkable facts.

The Wikipedia Encyclopedia writes:

“Mussolini was raised by a devoutly Catholic mother and an anti-clerical father. His mother Rosa had him baptized into the Roman Catholic Church, and took her children to services every Sunday… Mussolini would become anti-clerical like his father. As a young man, he ‘proclaimed himself to be an atheist and several times tried to shock an audience by calling on God to strike him dead.’… He believed that science had proven there was no God, and that the historical Jesus was ignorant and mad… Mussolini made vitriolic attacks against Christianity and the Catholic Church… Despite making such attacks, Mussolini would try to win popular support by appeasing the Catholic majority in Italy. In 1924, Mussolini saw that three of his children were given communion. In 1925, he had a priest perform a religious marriage ceremony for himself and his wife Rachele, whom he had married in a civil ceremony 10 years earlier.

“On 11 February 1929, he signed a concordat and treaty with the Roman Catholic Church. Under the Lateran Pact, Vatican City was granted independent statehood and placed under Church law—rather than Italian law—and the Catholic religion was recognized as Italy’s state religion. The Church also regained authority over marriage, Catholicism could be taught in all secondary schools, birth control and freemasonry were banned, and the clergy received subsidies from the state, and was exempted from taxation. Pope Pius XI praised Mussolini, and the official Catholic newspaper pronounced ‘Italy has been given back to God and God to Italy’…

“After the concordat… Mussolini reportedly came close to being excommunicated from the Catholic Church… Mussolini publicly reconciled with… Pope Pius XI in 1932, but ‘took care to exclude from the newspapers any photography of himself kneeling or showing deference to the Pope.’ He wanted to persuade Catholics that ‘[f]ascism was Catholic and he himself a believer who spent some of each day in prayer …’ The Pope began referring to Mussolini as ‘a man sent by Providence.’ Despite Mussolini’s efforts to appear pious, by order of his party, pronouns referring to him ‘had to be capitalized like those referring to God …’

“After his fall from power in 1943, Mussolini began speaking ‘more about God and the obligations of conscience’, although ‘he still had little use for the priests and sacraments of the Church.’ He also began drawing parallels between himself and Jesus Christ…”

“P.M. Biografie” wrote the following about Mussolini in March of 2008:

“As head of state, he reconciles with the Vatican, which increases his reputation among the people. Merely because of political reasons, he is married before the altar, and has his five children baptized. The pope… praises Mussolini as ‘the man whom Providence gave us’… Mussolini is worshipped as a god, his ministers are his high priests. He dreams of Rome as a metropolis as it existed during the times of Emperor Augustus… His headquarters is Rome and because of the immunity of the Vatican, he is safe from British bombs… Il Duce was during his glorious days more popular than anyone before or after him in the modern history of Italy.”

The book, “Kingdom of Europe,” added the following:

“The Lateran Pacts of 1929 consisted of a treaty between Italy and the Holy See and concordat regulating relations between the Italian state and the Catholic church. The treaty created the independent state of Vatican City and recognized the sovereignty of the pope there. In the concordat the church was assured of jurisdiction in ecclesiastical matters, and canon law was recognized as superseding the civil code in such areas as marriage. The church was restored to its role in education and allowed unencumbered operation of its press and communication facilities.”

In spite of his personal feelings towards the Catholic Church and his ambitions to be worshipped as a god and to restore the Roman Empire, we still see that he collaborated with the Church so much so that the pope praised him as a man sent by Providence—obviously a reference to God Himself. The competition between Church and State, which lasted throughout the history of the revivals of the Roman Empire, was also existent during the time of Mussolini and Hitler, and it will again be observable during the tenth and last revival.

Even though Mussolini actually declared publically the revival of the Roman Empire through him, this “revival” was short-lived and in no way comparable to the previous resurrections. This is the reason why the Bible describes it in Revelation 17:8-10 as the one which “is not, and yet is.” It says: “The beast… was, and is not, and will ascend out of the bottomless pit… And those who dwell on the earth will marvel… when they see the beast that was, and is not, and yet is… The seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman sits. There are also seven kings. Five [previous Church-State resurrections of the Roman Empire] have fallen, one is [the one under Mussolini], and the other has not yet come [the last revival]…”

In our free booklet, “Is That In the Bible? The Mysteries of the Book of Revelation,” we state that the ninth revival was the “comparatively insignificant Italian-German resurrection under Mussolini and Hitler (compare Revelation 17:10–11. Although this resurrection existed when God’s Church understood the meaning of this prophecy at the time of the late Herbert W. Armstrong [Revelation 17:10: “one IS”], it was very insignificant, so that it is also characterized as not existing [Revelation 17:11: “is NOT”].)

“Neither Mussolini nor Hitler were crowned by a Pope (as Justinian had not been, either); nevertheless, a close partnership existed between the Catholic Church under Pope Pius XII and Italy and Germany. This partnership can be seen by Mussolini’s signing the Lateran Treaty with the papacy in 1929, establishing papal sovereignty of the Vatican City, affirming Roman Catholicism as the only religion of Italy and, in turn, having the papacy officially recognize Mussolini as the rightful Italian governor. Further, the Vatican signed a concordat with Hitler in 1933, protecting the rights of the Church under Nazi regime and giving Hitler’s government an outward semblance of legitimacy.”

The ninth resurrection of the Roman Empire under Mussolini and Hitler had ended, and one more revival is prophesied to occur. That last revival of the ancient Roman Empire has been in the making for quite some time, and its final configuration is not that far off, as we will explain in future installments.

(To Be Continued)

Lead Writer: Norbert Link

Previously, we covered the first six revivals of the ancient Roman Empire, after its demise. The sixth revival under Otto the Great occurred about 962 A.D., but it too would come to an end. It would take more than 450 years after Otto’s death, before the next revival of the ancient Roman Empire would occur.

The Seventh Revival under Charles V of Habsburg

Charles V of Habsburg was crowned in 1530 A.D. by pope Clement VII as Holy Roman Emperor, and Germany could speak again “with its former authority in Europe,” as it had done under Otto the Great. According to P.M. History, Charles V ruled over an empire which never saw the setting of the sun. The Book, “The Living World of History” states:

“Charles V., who was crowned in [1530], dominated Europe… His grandfather, the Emperor Maximilian, had gained the Netherlands by marrying the heiress Mary of Burgundy. His father, Philip the Handsome, had espoused Joanna… [the] future heiress of Spain, the kingdom of Naples (embracing southern Italy) and Sicily and the growing Spanish dominions in the recently discovered New World. And the Habsburg family inheritance included Austria and other districts, as well as the imperial crown of Germany. Such was the colossal empire that Charles possessed when, at the age of twenty, he was crowned Holy Roman Emperor in [1530]… [But] when the Pope was intriguing… against Charles, his… troops sacked Rome and imprisoned the Pope…”

What this shows is that the relationship between the Catholic Church and the State was not always without problems, since both sides wanted to have dominion over the other party. In Charles’ case, “peace” was established again between Church and State. The afore-mentioned book continues:

“The advancing Turks (who had captured Constantinople in 1453) were a growing menace… Taking the field in person, he drove the Moslems back in Hungary and in 1535 [he] was acclaimed as the shining champion of Christendom when he captured Tunis in North Africa… After forty years of sovereignty… [he] abdicated the imperial throne in favour of his brother Ferdinand and retired to a Spanish monastery where, in 1558, he died. Ferdinand… received the Habsburg Austrian inheritance; Charles’s son Philipp II got the rest. So the great Habsburg empire fell into two parts, the Austrian and the Spanish…”

The collaboration between the pope and Charles V is also seen in the following example, as stated in the above-mentioned work, when dealing with the Reformation:

“In the sixteenth century, Western Europe, despite all its political and religious quarrels, had been united for a thousand years on a fundamental matter… the West was a single Christian community acknowledging the spiritual authority of the Pope… in 1520, the Pope issued a bull, or decree, of excommunication against [Martin Luther]. Luther’s reply was to burn it. Next year the pope called on Charles V to suppress him. Luther, refusing to retract his words, was outlawed.”

Here we see how in the past, the Church would excommunicate someone or call him “anathema”, and the State would come in to prosecute or outlaw such a person. Similar events are going to happen in the near future.

The book, “Kingdoms of Europe,” adds the following:

“In 1556 Charles V divided his realms with his son, Philip II of Spain, and his younger brother, Ferdinand, who succeeded him as Holy Roman emperor in 1558. Until the dissolution in 1806 of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, as the loose German confederation came to be called, the Austrian Habsburgs were concerned with internal German affairs and with the problems raised by the Reformation, the rising power of France, the almost constant Turkish threat, and the necessity for reorganizing and developing an administrative system for their territories. Austria itself was merely a headquarters for their activities. Usually a Habsburg was chosen Holy Roman emperor by the electors of the empire.”

However, the Habsburg empire after Charles V was in name only a continuance of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation. For all practical purposes, its power diminished constantly after Charles V, until it only had a shadowy existence.

The above-mentioned work continues:

“The Habsburgs opposed the Reformation and made every attempt to destroy it; in the territory of Austria they were almost completely successful in preventing the new movement from gaining a foothold… Internally… the Habsburgs consolidated their rule and reestablished the supremacy of the Roman Catholic church…”

Even though the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation endured officially until 1806 when the last Habsburg emperor abdicated, it had long before ceased to exist as the seventh revival of the ancient Roman Empire. Another revival was to occur instead—the eighth revival under Napoleon Bonaparte.

The Eighth Revival under Napoleon

Many believe erroneously that Napoleon was French. However, this was really not the case.

In “Living World of History,” we read:

“It was only by chance that France’s greatest military genius was a Frenchman at all. Corsica, where he was born in 1769, had only been acquired by France from Genoa the year before. Actually Napoleon was the second son of a poor Corsican lawyer of noble and, probably, Italian decent… [Napoleon’s] whole career was to blaze him forth as a superman… He could work or ride for hours on end. Food and sleep seemed unnecessary to him. His ambitions, like his vanity and selfishness, were boundless. No moral scruples restrained him. No man must stand in his way… In 1804… Napoleon attained the glory of being crowned Emperor of the French.”

The work, “Kingdoms of Europe,” elaborates:

“… on December 2, 1804, he was crowned in Notre Dame in great splendor. The pope was present, but Bonaparte placed the crown on his own head [apparently with the prior consent of the pope, according to P.M. History]… and he gave his soldiers eagle standards, in memory of the old Roman Empire… [Subsequently] Napoleon’s desire was fulfilled, His new wife presented him with a little son to perpetuate his imperial line, and the boy was promptly crowned king of Rome… in 1814… the French Senate, which Napoleon himself had created merely to register the laws, sent notice to him that it had deposed him from the rank as emperor.”

In their tongue-in-cheek article, “Good that there was Napoleon,” PM wrote:

“In 1804 he crowned himself in the presence of the Roman pope as emperor of the French… by the grace of God and the will of the nation, out of his own will as Caesar, and anointed by the church as Charlemagne… He appeased the Catholics with a concordat… not only the French, but also more and more Europeans saw the empire of Napoleon I as the continuation of the Roman Empire such as the Empire of the Franks had been. Even and especially Germans supported and accepted the French Emperor (who deposed the German Emperor), including Karl Theodor von Dalberg of Mainz, the arch chancellor of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation… Soon, the new empire reached until the river Elbe—as had been the case under Charlemagne.”

P.M. History states that Napoleon believed to be Charlemagne—perhaps his reincarnation. He wrote in 1806: “Je suis Charlemagne” (“I am Charlemagne”). The magazine also states that three months before his coronation as Emperor, Napoleon travelled to Aachen to visit Charlemagne’s tomb and to pay homage to him.

Will and Ariel Durant, “The Story of Civilization—The Age of Napoleon,” point out the following:

“But he also thought, and often spoke, of Charlemagne, who, in a reign of forty-six years (768-814), had brought order and prosperity… and had won—or commanded—consecration by a Pope; had not he, Napoleon, done all these things? Had he not restored in France the religion that was checking the pagan riot let loose by the Revolution? Did he not, like Charlemagne, deserve the crown for life?…

“By 1801, it was generally agreed that the Holy Roman Empire, as Voltaire had said, was neither holy nor Roman nor an empire; that no important state recognized its authority, or the authority of the pope; that some new form of order and cooperation amid the chaos would have to be devised, accepted, or imposed. Napoleon accepted the challenge…

“On August 6 [1806] Francis officially declared the Holy Roman Empire dissolved, and renounced the Imperial title, remaining emperor of Austria. The glory of the Hapsburgs faded, and a new Charlemagne, ruling from France, assumed authority over western Germany” (pp. 193, 588, 590).

The following is stated in “The History of Europe and the Church” (Worldwide Church of God, ed. 1984):

“In 1799 the young hero returns from an expedition against the English in Egypt. He seizes power in a bold move, setting up a new government of three members. Borrowing a title from ancient Rome, he calls them consuls. He himself is First Consul—a virtual dictator at age 30… He dreams of being another Caesar… Napoleon dreams of a resurrected Roman-European civilization dominated by France… ‘ The influence of Rome is incalculable,’ he declares. ‘It was a serious error to break with this power’… In 1801 a concordat… is concluded between France and the Papacy.

“The Catholic Church again becomes the official church of France [His nephew, Napoleon III –some claim that he was Napoleon’s illegitimate son–would continue in the tradition of close collaboration between the French state and the pope, rescuing and assisting him against Italian revolutionists, such as Garibaldi.]… [After his coronation through the pope in 1804] Napoleon crowns himself again [in 1806], this time with the celebrated ‘iron crown’ of Lombardy. One of the great historic symbols of Europe, this crown had previously been worn by Charlemagne, Otto the Great and other European sovereigns…”

Historical books will tell you that the Holy Roman Empire ceased to exist in 1806. They fail to mention that this was just the shadowy existence of the Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation, under the Habsburgs, but that in the meantime, Napoleon had already revived the Holy Roman Empire, but under French leadership.

The above-mentioned booklet explains:

“… it becomes clear that the Austrian-led Holy Roman Empire is dead. Napoleon… has usurped the Holy Roman Emperor’s primacy among European monarchs… On August 6, 1806, Holy Roman Emperor Francis II formally resigns his title and divests himself of the imperial crown… Technically, Napoleon has swept away the moribund Holy Roman Empire… but he perpetuates it, under a different name, for another eight years…

“In April 1810 Napoleon marries Archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria… [She] is a Habsburg princess, the eldest daughter of the last Holy Roman emperor… In March 1811 she bears Napoleon a long-desired son, who is given the title ‘King of Rome.’ … With the fall of Napoleon in 1814, the time-honored system of Roman-inspired government first resurrected by Justinian in A.D. 554 comes to an end after 1,260 years.”

The empire of Napoleon constituted indeed another revival of the ancient Roman Empire—in size and also in tradition. As mentioned, Napoleon wanted to be another Charlemagne and apparently believed that he was (the reincarnation of ) Charlemagne. (As we will see, Hitler seemed to have believed something similar). But Napoleon’s empire fell apart in 1814. Another revival was to occur in due time.

(To Be Continued)

Lead Writer: Norbert Link

Previously, we covered the first four revivals of the ancient Roman Empire, after its demise. The fourth revival under Justinian occurred about 554 A.D., but it too would come to an end and go back into the “abyss” of history. But almost 250 years later, the world would observe the next revival.

The Fifth Revival under Charlemagne

The Living World of History states:

“Charlemagne’s grandfather, Charles Martel, made 732 a memorable year in European annals. The Moslems, who were then the masters of Spain, surged into France with a great host. But Charles smashed their armies and destroyed their hopes for further conquests in the decisive battle of Poitiers. Charles’ son, Pepin the Short… presented the Papacy with certain districts in central Italy which he had captured from the barbarous Lombards. Thus the Pope, besides being the spiritual head of Western Christendom, became a territorial prince as ruler of the Papal States.

“From these victorious ancestors sprang the most illustrious hero of the Dark Ages, Charles the Great, or Charlemagne. He reigned over the reunited kingdom from 771 to 814 and he made it his aim to bring all the German peoples into one great Christian empire… His commanding figure… made him the idol of his warriors… His sword never rusted. He extinguished the Lombard kingdom; drove the Moslems from the buffer province he created south of the Pyrenees; and hounded the pagan Saxons till he had subdued them and forced them to accept Christianity… But the peak of his glory was scaled in Rome. The Roman Emperor of Constantinople, who reigned over the East and, nominally, over the West, had been dethroned. In 800, the Pope [Leo III] crowned Charlemagne emperor in his place…”

In the book, “Kingdoms of Europe,” we read the following about Charlemagne:

“On Christmas day of the year 800, as Carl the Frank [Charlemagne] knelt down before the altar of St. Peter’s [in Rome], the pope placed the crown on his head, and the Roman people cried out, ‘To Carlus Augustus, crowned by God, the great and peaceful emperor of the Romans, life and victory!’ So the empire of the West, which had died away for a time or been merged in the empire of the East at Constantinople, was brought to life again in the person of Charlemagne…”

Under the headline, “The Holy Roman Empire”, the book continues:

“Charlemagne succeeded through relentless military and missionary campaigns in bringing the areas of present-day Germany, France, Switzerland, Austria, northern Italy and Low Countries within a precariously unified administration. His coronation as emperor by Pope Leo III in Rome on Christmas Day, A.D. 800, marked the emergence of a successor in western and central Europe to the defunct Western Roman empire, which could protect the papacy and assume equality with the Byzantine successor of the empire in the east… The death of Charlemagne in 814 was followed by the rapid dissolution of the empire…

“Charlemagne, who ruled Germany as king from 771 to 800, and then as emperor from 800 to 814, was considered by future historians as the greatest European ruler of all time. Even Napoleon and Kaiser Wilhelm admitted that they ‘dreamed of being another Charlemagne.’… Because he was crowned emperor in 800 by Pope Leo III, he is considered by many scholars as the father of the Holy Roman Empire.”

In P.M. History, 4/99, the following is stated:

“In the year 1000 A.D., King Otto III opened the tomb [mausoleum] of Charlemagne in the citadel in Aachen. According to legend, he found the great predecessor sitting on his throne, without any indication of decay.”

Following the death of Charlemagne, the fifth revival of the Roman Empire would gradually come to an end. It took over 150 years until the next revival would begin to occur under the German emperor, Otto the Great.

The Sixth Revival under Otto the Great

Under the headline, “Germany and the Holy Roman Empire,” the book “The Living World of History” states the following:

“Otto had made himself the most powerful monarch in Europe… the ideal of the old Roman Empire, as a civilized community embracing all Christendom under the enlightened rule of Pope and Emperor, still lingered on. To Otto, with Italy already swallowed, it was a tempting banquet and in 962, he sat down to it; the Pope (John XII) crowned him Emperor. Thus begun the so-called Holy Roman Empire [of the German Nation] that was to stagger on till 1806.”

However, as the book also points out, it would not survive uninterruptedly. Referring to the time after the demise of the empire under Otto and his successors, the book writes: “All hope of establishing a strong and united Germany was ruined, and not until the late fifteenth century did the empire, under the Habsburgs, again speak with its former authority in Europe.”

Returning to Otto the Great, the book, “Kingdoms of Europe” explains:

“The formal revival of the Holy Roman Empire dates from 962, when Otto I (the Great) received the title Imperator et Augustus in Rome… [He] ruled until his death in 973. Under Otto I, the Great, Germany became the greatest nation in Europe in the tenth century.”

The book, “The Rise of Europe,” by Reader’s Digest, states: “[Under Otto], the brightness [of Europe] was renewed which the occidental empire possessed at one time under Charlemagne.”

The Wikipedia Encyclopedia states:

“Otto I is considered the first Holy Roman Emperor from the Kingdom of Germany, though Charlemagne of the Carolingian Dynasty was the first to receive papal coronation as Emperor of the Romans. Charles V was the last Holy Roman Emperor to be crowned by the Pope [but see our comments below]. The standard designation of the Holy Roman Emperor was ‘August Emperor of the Romans’ (Romanorum Imperator Augustus). When Charlemagne was crowned in 800, his was styled as ‘most serene Augustus, crowned by God, great and pacific emperor, governing the Roman Empire,’ thus constituting the elements of ‘Holy’ and ‘Roman’ in the imperial title. The word Roman was a reflection of the translatio imperii (transfer of rule) principle that regarded the (Germanic) Holy Roman Emperors as the inheritors of the title of Emperor of the Western Roman Empire, a title left unclaimed in the West after the death of Julius Nepos in 480.

“After Charlemagne was crowned Roman Emperor by the Pope, his successors maintained the title until the death of Berengar I of Italy in 924. No pope appointed an emperor again until Otto the Great (912-973). Otto is considered the first Holy Roman Emperor. Under Otto and his successors, much of the former Carolingian kingdom of Eastern Francia became the Holy Roman Empire.”

As we have seen, Charlemagne was also referred to as the “first” Holy Roman Emperor. It would therefore be more accurate to refer to Otto the Great as the “first” Holy Roman Emperor of the German Nation. (It is still hotly debated among historians whether Charlemagne, a Frank, belonged to the German, the Belgium or the French people.) As we will also see later on, Charles V of Habsburg was another Holy Roman Emperor who was crowned by a pope, establishing the seventh revival, but so was Napoleon (the eighth revival), even though he was technically crowned as Emperor of France, taking the crown from the pope and placing it himself on his own head.

The book “The Rise of Europe” also gives some interesting information about the “holy lance”:

“Otto I carried the holy lance which, according to legend, was used by the Roman soldier to pierce Christ’s side. It allegedly protected the warrior and gave him victory.”

The Wikipedia Encyclopedia confirms the existence of the belief in the “holy lance” and other “holy” insignia:

“The Holy Roman Emperors had a lance of their own, attested from the time of Otto I (912-973)… The Imperial Regalia, insignia, or crown jewels… are the regalia of the Emperors and Kings of the Holy Roman Empire. The most important parts are the Imperial Crown, the Holy Lance and the Imperial Sword… The Imperial Crown… was made probably somewhere in Western Germany, either under Conrad I or by Otto I…

“Along with the Imperial Cross, the Imperial Sword, and the Holy Lance, the crown was the most important part of the Imperial Regalia. During the coronation, it was given to the new king along with the sceptre and the Imperial Orb… Currently, the crown and the rest of the Imperial Regalia are exhibited at the Hofburg in Vienna — officially ‘until there is again a Holy Roman Emperor of the German Nation’…

“The Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire was… selected as the main motif for a high value commemorative coin, the €100 Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire commemorative coin, minted in 2008. The obverse shows the Imperial Crown of the Holy Roman Empire. The reverse shows the Emperor Otto I with old St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome in the background, where his coronation took place.”

The dream of a Holy Roman Empire (of the German Nation) is still very much alive, and one may wonder whether the Imperial Regalia will play any role during the last revival (as we will see, they did play a role during the ninth revival). The dream of a unified Europe, patterned after the Roman Empire, never really died, even though Rome’s eighth revival did not begin to form until the end of the 15th and the beginning of the 16th century, over 450 years after Otto’s death.

(To Be Continued)

Lead Writer: Norbert Link