The more things change, the more they stay the same.

From Lactantius, writing of the early Christian era:

“While Diocletian, that author of ill, and deviser of misery, was ruining all things, he could not withhold his insults, not even against God. This man, by avarice partly, and partly by timid counsels, overturned the Roman empire. For he made choice of three persons to share the government with him; and thus, the empire having been quartered, armies were multiplied, and each of the four princes strove to maintain a much more considerable military force than any sole emperor had done in times past. There began to be fewer men who paid taxes than there were who received wages; so that the means of the husbandmen being exhausted by enormous impositions, the farms were abandoned, cultivated grounds became woodland, and universal dismay prevailed. Besides, the provinces were divided into minute portions, and many presidents and a multitude of inferior officers lay heavy on each territory, and almost on each city. There were also many stewards of different degrees, and deputies of presidents. Very few civil causes came before them: but there were condemnations daily, and forfeitures frequently inflicted; taxes on numberless commodities, and those not only often repeated, but perpetual, and, in exacting them, intolerable wrongs.

Author's Notes:

Related:

A Solution to The Great Protestant Mystery?

Jesus warned against breaking even the least of His commandments. Yet Protestantism teaches disobedience to the Church Christ...

The Book of Acts tells us about “Acts”…

A short Introduction to The Book of Acts tells us about “Acts” and “Actors” in “God’s Big Movie”....

Three Sentences Tell Catholics What “Life” Is

We hold our immortal souls in fragile bodies. By God’s grace and the Church’s Sacraments, Catholics preserve this...

Forty Days of The First Lent saved a city filled…

Many Catholic souls are saved by our Forty Days of Lent. ~ Question 1: “What do we learn...

Catholics are blessed to ask ourselves God’s…

Today's Simple Rhyme: "From Jonah and Jesus we clearly see / To be as Catholic as we can...

Catholic “Jesus Receivers” understand…

Question 1: “How do our ‘Jesus Receivers’ let us see there are ‘Two Kingdoms‘?” Answer: “Today’s Catholic Reading...