ADAM, MELCHIOR. - Calvinist scholar, born at Grottkau (Silesia) and died in 1622 at Heidelberg, where he had taught since 1601. He published in four volumes (1615-20), later collected into one in 1705, 136 biographies of illustrious men in various branches of learning, theologians, philosophers, jurists, and physicians; the majority being Protestants and Germans.
Volumes II and its supplement were placed on the Index:
Vitae germanorum Theologorum, qui superiori saeculo ecclesiastici Christi voce scriptisque propagantur et propugnantur (Decree of 22 April 1624)
and
Decades duae, continentes vitae theologorum exteriorum principum, qui ecclesiastici Christi superiori saeculo propagantur et propugnantur (Decree of 9 July 1616).
Deplored even by Protestants for having limited himself to extolling only Calvinists, he was all the more condemned by the Church for the partisan spirit and erroneous opinions he displayed, which led Bayle to exploit him in his dictionary, itself also on the Index.