APOTTATICI. — S. S. S. S. S. S. S. S. S. S. S. S. S. S.
Subjects (renunciants) with ascetic pretensions, which spread in Asia Minor. St BASIL, who reports on them, says that their followers, following the example of Marcion, displayed an absolute rigorism, and like the Encratites they forbade not only illicit contacts but marriage itself; they preached detachment from wealth and condemned all forms of property. Gradually they degenerated and fell into Manichaeism, although they did everything to dispel suspicion. Theodosius the Great, in 381 and 383, included them in the condemnation issued against Manichaeism in the *Secunda Theodosii Magni in haereticos manichaeos nominatim Constitutio* (Codex Theodos., XVI, tit. v, ll. 7 and 11).
BIBL.: Basil, *Ep. can.* 2: PG 32, 729; Epiphanius, *Anacephaleosis*, II, 15: PG 42, 868; G. Bareille, s. V. in DTHC, I, col. 1646; A. Lambert, s. V. in DACL, I, 2604-26.