Apotactics

APOTATTICI. - A sect (ἀποτακτικοί, from ἀποτάσσομαι, “I renounce”), with ascetic pretensions, which arose in the

third century and was very widespread in Asia Minor. S. Basilio, who reports on it, says that its adherents, following the example of Marcione, displayed an extremism of the most absolute kind; and, like the encratites, they forbade not only illicit relations but marriage itself; they preached detachment from wealth and condemned every kind of property. Little by little they degenerated and fell into Manichaeism, although they did everything possible to avert suspicion of II. Teodosio

the Great, in 381 and 383, included them in the condemnation pronounced against Manichaeism in the Secunda Theodosii Magni in haereticos manichaeos nominatim Constitutio (Codex Theodos., XVI, tit. v, ll. 7 and 11).

BIBL.: Basilio, Ep. can. s.: PG 32, 729; Epifanio, Anacephalensis, II, 15; PG 42, 868; G. Bareille, s. V. in DThC, I, col. 1646; A. Lambert, s. V. in DACL, I, 2604-26.

Angelo Audino

Cite this article

“APOTATTICI.” Enciclopedia Cattolica, vol. I (1948), p. 1008. Azione Romana digital edition, https://azioneromana.com/article/apotattici.