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 vigorously opposes the doctrine of the materialists in his treatise against Hermogenes, who was one of their number.

Materialists is also a name given to those who maintain that the soul of man is material; or that the principle of perception and thought is not a substance distinct from the body, but the result of corporeal organization. See METAPHYSICS. There are others, called by this name, who have maintained that there is nothing but matter in the universe; and that the Deity himself is material. See SPINOZISM.