The second chapter continues the investigation of sacrum imperium, demonstrating that while the imperial chancery used the term more and more frequently, it was only the strong Italian presence at court that kept influencing the imperial notaries to use it and other correlated terms. It is also made clear that the converse was true: when there were no Italians at court, this kind of terminology was not used, even as late as the 1220s. The investigation shows, contrary to expectations, that cities where this terminology was used could be identified, and occasionally even individuals could be pinpointed. Moreover, the presence of courtiers or diplomats from the city of Rome is clearly correlated to the appearance of the tripartite title of the Empire (sacrum Romanum imperium and sacrum imperium Romanum). Thus, the most commonly used title of the Empire for most of its existence was not only invented by the Romans, as Jürgen Petersohn demonstrated, but it was also propagated by them to the rest of the Empire and the world.

The first chapter deals with the phrase sacrum imperium in the period 1125–1167. It starts out as a rare occurrence in imperial Italy when the locals sought German imperial assistance and, at the same time, a staple phrase used by Latin diplomats to address the Byzantine emperor. However, Sulovsky shows that after the Second Crusade (1147–1149), the German imperial court increasingly adopted elements of the sacral terminology of the state, as used in the Byzantine east, when dealing with Italian affairs. When Barbarossa’s second Italian campaign (1158–1162) was being planned in early 1157, the term sacrum imperium finally appeared in a document issued by the imperial chancery. However, whereas previous scholars could not tell who the author behind the text was, Sulovsky argues that it was the senior notary Albert of Sponheim, who had introduced other innovations as well, and who had taken part in both the aforementioned crusade and in Frederick’s first Italian expedition as a high-level diplomat. Moreover, Albert adopted sacrum imperium both from the Italian and Byzantine usages to the German one, so that he could convince the letter’s addressee, his fellow crusader Otto of Freising, to join the Italian war.