Historical Period The "Emergent Glitch" How the Old World Felt Displaced The Protestant Reformation (16th Century) The sudden, emergent splintering of religious authority and the end of a unified Western Christian world order. The religious certainty that had defined life for a millennium was revealed to be a fragile system. The core reality—faith—had ruptured. The Transition to the Early Modern Period (c. 1500) The "Great Divergence," where globalization, discovery, and new scientific thought emerged simultaneously, shattering the medieval, feudal system. The world became incomprehensibly large and complex almost overnight. Ancient knowledge systems ceased to be predictive.