Adam was rewarded for his loyalty to Urban VI after the schism. In the second consistory of his reign Urban promoted no less than 17 new cardinals and Adam is the first listed by the German historian of the Catholic Church, Conrad Eubel.

Adam's achivement was exceptional as England may have been an important kingdom of later mediaeval Europe, but it was still on the margins and distant from the centre of the Church, whether at Rome or Avignon. Perhaps this as much as anything else was the reason that so few Englishmen were ever made cardinals and only one had ever become pope. Indeed until the Reformation made the exercise academic, no more than 16 Englishmen were ever created as a cardinal and of these Adam was the 12th.

Interestingly Eubel makes a mistake in his presentation of Adam's promotion that has caused a good deal of confusion about Adam's precise status as a cardinal. He describes Adam as Cardinal of St Cecilia's, an honorary title of the sort commonly given out to new cardinals. That this is an error is almost certain because in the first promotion of Cardinals by Urban VI on 18th September 1378, Bonaventura de Padova was created cardinal priest of St Cecilia and it would have been unprecedented to have two cardinals allocated to the same church in Rome at the same time. Yet Bonaventura did die in 1389 just as Adam was being restored to his dignities by Boniface IX. Not surprisingly Boniface awarded Adam the first vacant title, which following Bonaventura's death was that of St Cecilia. This is born out by the fact that no contemporary record refers to Adam as cardinal of St Cecilia prior to 1389 instead he is referred to as Eubel hints, as Cardinal of England.