ADAMO SCOTO (or Anglicus, or Magister Adam, or ADAMO of DRYBURGH). — Ascetical writer, first a Premonstratensian, then a Carthusian. He is to be distinguished from the two men of the same name who likewise had connections with the Charterhouse of Witham (in Somersetshire, England): A., Benedictine of Eynsham, near Oxford, chaplain and biographer of St. Ugo of Lincoln, and A. Anglus, a twelfth-century Carthusian at the Charterhouse of Witham.
Miss E. M. Thompson discovered at the London Charterhouse an ancient manuscript Chronicle of the Charterhouse of Witham (founded by Henry II of England in 1181), entitled: De vita et conversatione Magistri Adae Cartudensis secundum quod habetur in chronico domus de Witham. This biography was written by a confrère of A. (cf. f. 220), and from it we learn that A. was born on the borders of England and Scotland, to a modest family. Having entered the Premonstratensian Order at Dryburgh, at the age of 25 he was ordained a priest. He was of discerning intellect, singular eloquence, and irreproachable life, which won him general admiration. Appointed coadjutor abbot of Dryburgh Abbey, the general of Prémontré, because of his reputation as a preacher and saint, summoned him to his side. While at Prémontré, A. went to visit the Charterhouse of Val St. Pierre and was deeply impressed by II. Returning to England, he entered (ca. 1188) the Charterhouse of Witham with a recommendation from St. Ugo 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. Ugo of Lincoln, that general chapter lifted the excommunication.
From then on A. lived in the Charterhouse in prayer and study. The archbishop of Canterbury Hudelebertus visited the celebrated monk and wanted him to preach in his presence; he seemed to be 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, of which the principal is Soliloquium de instructione animae (PL 198, 842-72), and many sermons (47 are in PL 198, 11-842; another 28 were published by W. Gray Birch, Sermones fratris Adae, London 1901; and yet others Ad Firos Religiosos: 14 Sermons d'Adam Scot, Tongerloo 1934). At Witham he composed, among other works: Libellus super Canonem Missae; De quadripertio exercitio cellae (under the name of Guigo, in PL 153, 787-884); Libellus super Dominica Oratione; Speculum disciplinae; Dialogus Magistri Adae; Exameron; Libellus de consanguinitate Annae matris B. Mariae et B. Elisabeth; Libellus: Secretum meum mihi.