ADAM. - French Jansenist writer who hides under the pseudonym of A. According to some (cf. Reusch, II, p. 890) he would be the Capuchin Osmont du Sollier. Placed on the Index (29 Feb. 1752) is the work: L'avocat du diable, ou mémoires historiques et critiques sur la vie et sur la légende du pape Grégoire VII, avec des mémoires du même goût sur la Bulle de canonisation de Vincent de Paul, in 3 volumes.
He defends the conduct and the opposition of the Jansenists against two decisions of the Church; the first of Benedict XIII, which prescribed (25 Sept. 1728) for the universal Church the Mass and office in honor of St. Gregory VII. In the 5th lesson of the Breviary there were (and still are) the words: « Contra Henrici imperatoris impios conatus, fortis per omnia athleta, impavidus permanit... ac eundem Henricum... fidelium communione regnoque privavit atque subditos populos fide ei data privavit ». In these passages the Jansenist and Gallican clergy saw an ultramontane attempt against governments, especially against the French one, and prohibited, resorting also to the authority of the parliament, the recitation of that office. The mandates of certain bishops against the order of Benedict XIII were condemned by various briefs; and every opposition, even lay, was condemned by a general brief of 19 Dec. 1729. The second question derived from the bull of canonization of St. Vincent de Paul (16 June 1737). The incriminated passage was the one where it was said that Vincent was exalted by God with miracles in that very time in which the innovators labored to spread their errors in France, to disturb the peace of the Church and to detach the faithful from unity with the Holy See by publishing false and invented miracles. The Jansenists saw in it a reprobation of the miracles, loudly proclaimed by them, that had occurred at the tomb of the deacon François Pâris (v.). The A. went so far as to call St. Vincent "an infamous informer and an execrable mischief-maker"; and the parliament defended the suppression of the bull, because with the example of Vincent it taught "the immediate recourse to the Holy See, favoring impetuous movements... tending to resolve by way of authority the disputes that arise in the Church."
Louis XV prohibited any decision and decree against the bull.