MELCHIOR

ADAM (d. 1622)  , German divine and biographer, was born at Grotkau in Silesia after 1550, and educated in the college of Brieg, where he became a Protestant . In 1598 he went to Heidelberg, where he held various scholastic appointments . He wrote the biographies of a number of German scholars of the 16th century, mostly theologians, which were published in Heidelberg and Frankfort (5 vols., 1615–1620) . He dealt with only twenty divines of other countries . All his divines are Protestants . His industry as a biographer is commended by P . Bayle, who acknowledges his obligations to Adam's labours; and his biographies, though they have faults, are still useful .