Acre was one of the largest cities in the Kingdom of Jerusalem, and historian Bernard Hamilton presumes that Adam was experienced in church administration.
[2] A career in church administration was regarded as particularly significant for clerics who aspired to be appointed to bishoprics.
[2] With other bishops and archbishops of the kingdom, Adam took part in a synod convoked in 1156 at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre by the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, Fulcher of Angoulême.
Fulcher was incensed by the apparent insubordination of the Prior and the canons the Mount of Olives, and the synod found against them.
[4] Peter convinced Adam and Mainard, who were his suffragans, to walk barefoot with him through the city of Jerusalem in a show of solidarity with the prior and the canons.