ADAM, MELCHIOR. - Calvinist scholar, born at Grottkau (Silesia) and died in 1622 at Heidelberg, where he had taught since 1601. In 4 volumes (1615–20), later collected into a single volume in 1705, he published 136 biographies of illustrious men in the various branches of learning: theologians, philosophers, jurists, and physicians; for the most part Protestants and Germans.
Placed on the Index were vol. II: Vitae germanorum Theologorum, qui superiori saeculo ecclesiam Christi voce scriptisque propagarunt et propugnarunt (Decree of 22 Apr. 1624), and its supplement: Decades duae, continentes vitas theologorum exterorum principum, qui ecclesiam Christi superiori saeculo propagarunt et propugnarunt (Decree of 9 July 1616). Deplored by Protestants themselves because he had confined himself to extolling Calvinists alone, he was all the more condemned by the Church for the partisan spirit and erroneous opinions he displayed, which enabled Bayle to make use of him in his dictionary, itself also on the Index.