 Sectarian thinkers are led by an authority on whom they slavishly depend. They do not follow their own reasoning, but spend their time absorbing, reproducing and fiercely defending what they have learned ex cathedra. Sectarian philosophers do not follow the truth of what is being said, but the authority of the person who said something. The most notable sects in Sturm’s days are the Aristotelians (secta Aristotelica) with its two main branches, namely, the Greek interpreters and the scholastic commentators; the Cartesians (secta Cartesiana); the Gassendists (secta Gassendica) reviving Epicurean and Democritean thought; and the Neoplatonists (secta Neo-Platonica) (DSE: 13). In his Physica Electiva, Sturm mentions the alchemical school (the Spagyric school or that of the chemists [Chemicorum]) as the fourth main one omitting Neo-Platonism (PE I: preface, art. 3.5).