APOTACTITÆ, or APOTACTICI, an ancient sect, who, affecting to follow the examples of the apostles and primitive Christians, renounced all their possessions, and devoted them to the common cause. It does not appear that they at first fell into any errors. Some ecclesiastical writers assure us that several holy virgins and martyrs of this sect suffered under the persecution of Diocletian in the fourth century; but they afterwards embraced the opinions of the Encratite, and taught that the renouncing of all riches was not only a matter of counsel and advice, but of precept and necessity; and hence the sixth law in the Theodosian code joins the Apotactitae with the Eunomians and Arians.