 Subsequently, an increasing number of European texts adopted conventional spacing, and within the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, all European texts were written with word separation.When word separation became the standard system, it was seen as a simplification of Roman culture because it undermined the metric and rhythmic fluency generated through "scriptio continua".In contrast, paleographers today identify the extinction of "scriptio continua" as a critical factor in augmenting the widespread absorption of knowledge in the Pre-Modern Era.