ADAM OF SAINT VICTOR. – Augustinian canon, one of the most renowned authors of liturgical sequences. Biographical details are scarce. According to the Victorine abbot William of Saint-Lo (d. 1349), A. was a “natione Brito” (a Breton) who lived at the time of Hugh of Saint-Victor and composed “valde multas prosas,” perfect in content and form, on the Most Holy Trinity, the Holy Spirit, the Virgin Mary, the apostles, and many other saints (E. Martène, *Ampl. Coll.*, VI, 220-221). He died in the second half of the 12th century.
While the attribution of the *Prosae*, such as *Stamma de vocabulis Bibliae*, *De discretione animae et spiritus*, and *Super cantica expositio*, to A. remains uncertain—Victorine sources on this point are late and often inaccurate—his fame is rightly tied to the Sequences. It is noteworthy that this genre of poetry, which began in the Benedictine Order in a form still somewhat awkward and irregular, flourished splendidly in the Order of Augustinian Canons, especially at Saint-Victor, where A., it seems, had more than one competent imitator, and at Saint Florian (Upper Austria), from which, already in the 11th century, sequences emerged that were not inferior to those attributed to him.
Commonly, 45 of the 72 sequences contained in one of the oldest graduals of Saint-Victor (ms. B. N. 14452, 13th c.) are attributed to A. But this attribution rests almost exclusively on internal criteria, not entirely reliable and sometimes even fallacious (cf. C. Blume, *Anal. Hymn.*, 54 [1915], p. VIII, 39). However, some testimony, documented in one of the two sequences, allows us to consider that of the 45 sequences, at least a good number should be attributed to the Victorine master.
At the Fourth Lateran Council (1215), Innocent III gave special approval to the compositions of A., along with those of Hugh, Richard, and others. A.’s poetry is based on accent, rhyme, and syllable count, according to which the verses can be of 4, 6, 7, 8, 10, or 12 syllables. The meter is iambic or trochaic. The most common stanza—which would remain typical until the 16th century—is the trochaic one, composed of two octonaries and a heptameter with a caesura after the second foot:
*„Ave virgo singularis,*
*Porta vitae, stella maris,*
*„Ave decus virginum.“*
Usually, the sequence begins with an invocation, followed by the development of thought with a surprising variety of nuances, and closes with a new invocation. Elegance of form and depth of concept explain the great success many of these sequences enjoyed in the Latin Church of the Middle Ages.
ADAM SCOTUS (or Anglicus, or Magister Adam, or Adam of Dryburgh). – Ascetical writer, first Premonstratensian, then Carthusian. He is to be distinguished from the two namesakes who also had relations with the Charterhouse of Witham (in Somersetshire, England): A., a Benedictine of Eynsham near Oxford, chaplain and biographer of St. Hugh of Lincoln, and A. Anglus, a 12th-century Carthusian of Witham.
Miss E. M. Thompson discovered in the London Charterhouse an ancient manuscript chronicle of Witham Charterhouse (founded by Henry II of England in 1181) entitled: *De vita et conversatione Magistri Adae Cartusiensis secundum quod habetur in chronica domus de Witham*. This biography was written by a confrere of A. (cf. f. 220), and from it we learn that A. was born on the borders of England and Scotland, of humble family. Having entered the Premonstratensian Order at Dryburgh at the age of 25, he was ordained priest. He was of keen intellect, possessed singular eloquence, and lived an irreproachable life that drew general admiration. Appointed coadjutor abbot of Dryburgh Abbey, the general of Prémontré, impressed by his fame as a preacher and saint, summoned him to himself. While at Prémontré, A. visited the Charterhouse of Val St. Pierre and was enraptured by II. Returning to England, he entered (c. 1188) the Charterhouse of Witham on the recommendation of St. Hugh of Lincoln. After four months of novitiate, a letter from the abbot and the general chapter of Prémontré announced his excommunication for having left the Order; through the intercession of St. Hugh of Lincoln, the general chapter lifted the excommunication.
From then on, A. lived as a Carthusian in prayer and study. Archbishop of Canterbury, Hubert Walter, visited the renowned monk and asked him to preach in his presence; it seemed to him that he was listening to an angel. A. died a holy death at the Charterhouse of Witham in 1212 or 1213, after 24 years of Carthusian life.
Before entering the Charterhouse, he had written several ascetical treatises, the principal of which is the *Soliloquium de instructione animae* (PL 198, 842-72), and many sermons (47 are in PL 198, 11-842; another 28 edited by W. Gray Birch, *Sermones fratris Adae*, London 1901; and finally *Ad Viro Religiosos: 14 Sermons d’Adam Scot*, Tongerloo 1934). A. of Witham also composed, among other works: *Libellus super Canonem Missae*; *De quadripertito exercitio cellae* (under the name of Guigo, in PL 153, 787-884); *Libellus super Dominica Oratione*; *Speculum disciplinae*; *Dialogus Magistri Adae*; *Examen*; *Libellus de consanguinitate Annae matris B. Mariae et B. Elisabeth*; *Libellus: Secretum meum mihi*.