The Holy Roman Empire began exactly as its name promised: holy, Roman, and unmistakably powerful.

The reputation of people, institutions and companies is notoriously slow to update.

Gradual change rarely breaks an anchor; small improvements may even strengthen the original label.

“The Holy Roman Empire was neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire.” Voltaire’s famous verdict is remembered today because it's equal amounts surprising and merciless, all the while being an insightful observation. It can also teach us something important about human psychology.

In case you too forgot your middle school history, the Holy Roman Empire began as a serious political project. It was an attempt to revive Roman authority, fuse it with Christian legitimacy, and impose order on post-Roman Europe.

When Charlemagne, the Frankish king who had conquered much of Western Europe, was crowned in 800 AD, the Holy Roman Empire was all the things. It was “holy” because the Pope provided divine legitimacy. It was “Roman” because Charlemagne actually held Rome. And it was an “empire” because the emperor wielded terrifying, centralized authority.

But in a slow erosion over the next thousand years, this reality rotted away, and only the branding survived. The Protestant Reformation severed its “holiness” when it turned emperors against popes and split the church. The “Roman” influence also vanished as the political center of gravity shifted north into Germany. And finally, the word “empire” hollowed out. What began as a centralized superpower dissolved into a club of three hundred........

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