Pap, like his father, aggressively pursued a policy of Christian Arianism. He was struggling to rule a kingdom that was recently dismantled by Shapur II; his actions to keep a tight grip on power led to his downfall. Pap poisoned the popular Armenian Catholicos Nerses in 373, who was a very close Roman ally. The poisoning of Nerses was one of the measures that Pap took to restrain the excessive power of the Church, which included the confiscation of rich estates which were attached to the Holy See. Pap had nominated a certain Husik as a replacement and sent him for consecration in Caesarea. The bishop of Caesarea Basil refused to consecrate the nominee but Valens requested that Basil quickly resolve the situation by finding a new nominee acceptable to Pap. Basil failed to do so and the Roman see of Caesarea effectively lost its traditional role of consecrating the Catholicos of Armenia. Pap's refusal to cooperate with Basil angered Valens. In addition, Pap demanded control over Caesarea and twelve other Roman cities including Edessa as former Arsacid domains while openly courting Persia. Valens decided to execute Pap and invited him to a meeting in Tarsus. Pap arrived with 300 mounted escorts but quickly became anxious when he found out the Emperor was not there in person, fleeing back to Armenia.