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"On December 30, 1797, at three in the afternoon, the Holy Roman Empire, supported by the Sacraments, passed away peacefully at Regensburg at the age of 955, in consequence of senile debility and an apoplectic stroke. The deceased was born at Verdun in the year 842, and educated at the Court of Charles the Simple and his successors. The young prince was taught piety by the Popes, who canonised him in his lifetime. But his tendency to a sedentary life, combined with zeal for religion, undermined his health. His head became visibly weaker, till at last he went mad in the Crusades. Frequent bleedings and careful diet restored him; but, reduced to a shadow, the invalid tottered through the centuries till violent hemorrhage occurred in the Thirty Years' War. Hardly had he recovered when the French arrived, and a stroke put an end to his sufferings. He kept himself unstained by the Aufklärung, and bequethed the left bank of the Rhine to the French Republic."
--Görres (Cf. Germany and the French Revolution, Gooch p. 516)
N.B. In the thought of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI the best legacy of the Holy Roman Empire is coupled with the best Enlightenment ideals to find perfect harmony and fruition as the foundation for a rebirth of Western Civilization. Freedom, Fraternity and Equality are anchored in Paternity and Faith. Reason gets religion and finally understands itself.
