Nerses the Great
[310-373]
In stories of Nerses the Great, it’s always noted that he refused to let the Armenian king Pap join the church. Why? Faustus of Byzantium, a Christian historian of the fifth century, tells this story of the king.
Pap was the son of the polygamist king’s second wife, P'arhanjem. After Pap was born, she jealously poisoned the king’s first wife, Queen Olympia, in order to take over her throne. (Nerses, already chief-bishop of the Eastern church, disapproved of this and was banished.)
As a child, Pap was overcome by demons. Servants often found snakes curled around his chest and shoulders. “Don’t be afraid,” he said. “They are mine.” As he got older, Pap was known to transform into a woman in order to sleep with men. Of this, from a distance, Nerses also disapproved.
When Pap became king, he feigned reconciliation and invited Nerses back to Armenia — where, as his mother had done, he poisoned his rival to death.