MATERIALISTS, a sect in the ancient church, composed of persons who, being prepossessed with that maxim in the ancient philosophy, Ex nihilo nihil fit, "Out of nothing nothing can arise," had recourse to an internal matter, on which they supposed God wrought in the creation; instead of admitting God alone as the sole cause of the existence of all things. Tertullian vi-
gorously opposes the doctrine of the materialists in his Materialists. treatise against Hermogenes, who was one of their number.