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The Catholic church is the senior institution of Western civilisation, its unbroken line of succession running like a spine from the height of the Roman Empire to the present. This phenomenal endurance is the product of a genius capable of a fluid adaptation to the vicissitudes of history, while retaining a granite core of identity. The conjuncture of these two traits is of course a sine qua non for any successful religion; but in the case of Roman Catholicism it is all the more remarkable given the marked degree of temporal power associated with the church. The secular orders with which it has been associated have gone their way; but the church endures, borrowing, adapting, transforming its outer shell when necessary. Today, long past the tocsin announced for it by the Enlightenment, Catholicism continues to grow in influence.