ADAM, MELCHIOR. - Calvinist scholar, b. at Grottkau (Silesia) and d. in 1622 at Heidelberg, where he had taught since 1601. He published in 4 volumes (1615-20), later collected into a single one in 1705, 136 biographies of illustrious men in the various branches of the sciences, theologians, philosophers, jurists, physicians; for the most part Protestants and Germans.

Placed on the Index are vol. II: Vitae germanorum Theologorum, qui superiori saeculo ecclesiam Christi voce scriptisque propagarunt et propugnarunt (Decree of 22 April 1624) and the addition to it: Decades duae, continentes vitas theologorum exterorum principum, qui ecclesiam Christi superiori saeculo propagarunt et propugnarunt (Decree of 9 July 1616). Deplored by the Protestants themselves, because he had limited himself to exalting only Calvinists, it was all the more condemned by the Church for the partisan spirit and the erroneous opinions manifested in it, which caused it to be exploited by Bayle in his dictionary, also on the Index.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: P. Bayle, Dictionnaire historique et critique, I, 3rd ed., Amsterdam 1740, pp. 114-15; F. H. Reuss, Der Index der verbotenen Bücher, II, Bonn 1885, p. 80.

Celestino Testore

@incollection{ec1_adam_melchior, author = {Testore, Celestino}, title = {Adam, melchior}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {I}, pages = {268}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1948}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/adam-melchior} }

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Adam, Melchior

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