The Enlightenment? Ha!

With the breakdown of the Medieval system, the gods of Chaos, Lunacy, and Bad Taste gained ascendancy.  After a period in which the Western world had enjoyed order, tranquility, unity, and oneness with its True God and Trinity, there appeared winds of change which spelled evil days ahead.  An ill wind blows no one good [...] Fortuna's wheel had turned on humanity, crushing its collarbone, smashing its skull, twisting its torso, puncturing its pelvis, sorrowing its soul.  Having once been so high, humanity fell so low.  What had once been dedicated to the soul was now dedicated to the sale.

Merchants and charlatans gained control of Europe, calling their insidious gospel "The Enlightenment." [...] The gyro had widened; The Great Chain of Being had snapped like so many paper clips strung together by some drooling idiot; death, destruction, anarchy, progress, ambition and self-improvement were to be Piers' new fate.  And a vicious fate it was to be: now he was faced with the pervesion of having to GO TO WORK.