Nicene and Post-Nicene Church Fathers Series 2 - The Still Small ...

To the bishops of Italy and Gaul concerning the condition and confusion…
way; 3050 they visit the sick; they console the sorrowful; they aid the distressed; they give
succour of various kinds; they communicate the mysteries. All these things, as long as the
performance of them is in their hands, are so many ties to bind the people to their views.
The result will be that in a little time, even if some liberty be conceded to us, there is small
hope that they who have been long under the influence of error will be recalled to recognition
of the truth.
5. Under these circumstances it would have been well for many of us to have travelled
to your reverences, and to have individually reported each his own position. You may now
take as a proof of the sore straits in which we are placed the fact that we are not even free
to travel abroad. For if any one leaves his Church, even for a very brief space, he will leave
his people at the mercy of those who are plotting their ruin. By God’s mercy instead of
many we have sent one, our very reverend and beloved brother the presbyter Dorotheus.
He is fully able to supply by his personal report whatever has been omitted in our letter, for
he has carefully followed all that has occurred, and is jealous of the right faith. Receive him
in peace, and speedily send him back to us, bringing us good news of your readiness to
succour the brotherhood.
3050 I suggest this rendering of προπομπαὶ τῶν ἐξοδευόντων with hesitation, and feel no certainty about the
passage except that the Ben. tr., “deductiones proficiscentium,” and its defence in the Ben. note, is questionable.
The escort of a bishop on a journey is quite on a different plane from the ministrations which Basil has in mind.
προπομπαὶ is used by Chrysostom of funerals, and Combefis explains “excedentium deductæ funebres, deducta
funera;” but the association of ideas seems to necessitate some reference to the effect of vicious teaching on the
living. There may be an indirect allusion to the effect on the friends at a funeral, but to take ἐξοδευόντων to
mean “the dying” seems the simplest. ἐξοδευθείς is used of Sisera in Judges v. 27, LXX. cf. p. 180 n., where
perhaps this rendering might be substituted, and Canon Bright on Canon xiii. of Nicæa.
786