THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
held by him in 527 at Tvin (Dwin). See Nestoeians, § 3.
3. Nerses III.: Catholicos 640-661; d. 661. He was called " the builder " because he rebuilt Tvin, the patriarchal city that had been destroyed by the Arabs. He lived in troublous times, when Greeks and Arabs alike were seeking to subjugate the Armenians. During a short interval of peace he held a synod at Tvin in which the Chalcedonian symbol was rejected. A successful Arab invasion (646) led the Emperor Constans II. to march an army into Armenia. Nerses met him and succeeded in pacifying him, but was obliged to accept the Chalcedonian symbol. After the emperor's departure another synod (648) requested him to give the Armenians freedom to accept or reject the Chalcedonian symbol. Nerses now lost his popularity by adhering to that statement of faith and retired from Tvin in 649, leaving the anti-Chalcedonian party in control. After this the Arabs again gained possession of the country, and, the anti- Chalcedonian leader Theodorus having died, Nerses returned to Tvin (654) and resumed the ecclesiastical leadership.
4. Nerses IV.: Catholicos 1166-73; b. about 1098; d. Aug., 1173. Of royal lineage and princely birth, he was early dedicated to the Christian ministry and was carefully educated under the guidance of his elder brother, the Catholicos Gregory III., and later of Stephen, abbot of the " Red Monastery." In 1135 he was ordained priest and soon afterward elevated to the episcopate. At a synod at Rom-Klah, held shortly before his death, Gregory, with the approval of the synod, consecrated Nerses his successor. Before this time Nerses had become deeply interested in the question of union with the Greek Church and just after his brother's death received from the Emperor Manuel I. an invitation to visit Constantinople in this interest. He was unable to accept the invitation, but wrote approvingly of union {Opera, i. 195-204, Venice, 1873). A second embassy from the emperor (1170) led to another synod at Rom-Klah and further union measures {Opera, i. 231-238). As a result of other overtures from the emperor (1173) nine points that had been in dispute between Greeks and Armenians were agreed upon (excommunication of all Monophysite leaders — Eutyches, Dioscurus, and others; acknowledgment of two natures, wills, and energies in Christ united in one personality; omission of the words " who was crucified " in the Trisagion [see Theopaschites]; celebration of the Greek festivals on the dates fixed by the Eastern Church; olive-oil to be used in the preparation of the myrrh for unction; leavened bread and wine mixed with water to be used in the eucharist; laity as well as clergy to remain in church during communion and divine service; acknowledgment of the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh ecumenical councils; the catholicos to be appointed by the Greek emperor). Before the negotiations were completed he died. Nerses was an eloquent speaker and an elegant writer. He wrote a commentary on Matthew and many minor exegetical pieces, and a number of somewhat elaborate doctrinal tracts and letters. Several occasional discourses have been preserved.
His most widely known work is his collection of short prayers for every hour of the day and night. This has been translated into thirty-six languages and frequently published in this polyglot form (e.g., Venice, 1882). By his poetry he gained literary renown. Besides many shorter poems, an epic on the history of Armenia, an elegy on the destruction of Edessa by the sultan of Aleppo, and a long religious poem, "Jesus the Son," have been preserved (Venice, 1824). The Armenians regard him as their national Homer. He is said to have introduced riming into Armenian.
5. Nerses of Lambron: Archbishop of Tarsus; b. 1133; d. July 14, 1198. He was son of a prince and on his mother's side a scion of the royal house of Arshak, also a nephew of Nerses IV., by whom at the age of sixteen he was ordained priest. When eighteen years of age he was offered an abbacy and a bishopric. These preferments he declined in favor of a long course of study with his teacher Stephen in a desert place. In 1176 he reluctantly accepted the archbishopric of Tarsus and Lambron and the abbacy of Skyrra. He was a highly gifted writer in prose and verse and was not devoid of statesmanship. In 1179, at the request of the Catholicos Gregory, he participated in a synod at Rom-Klah called in the interest of union with the Greek Church. He spoke in favor of union and had the concurrence of the synod; but the death of the Emperor Manuel (1180) prevented its consummation. These efforts at union resulted from considerations of political expediency rather than from theological conviction, and when (1190) Frederick Barbarossa approached the borders of Cilicia, Nerses accompanied the catholicos and the governor of Cilicia to meet him, evidently hoping to form an alliance with the Western Empire and the Latin Church. Frederick died before they reached the German army. Negotiations with the Latins embittered the Greeks against the Armenians, whom they stigmatized as Eutychians. In 1193 union with the Latins was consummated by the Cilician Armenians, Leo, the governor, having been made king by the Latins and twelve Roman bishops, of whom Nerses was first, having been recognized. Nerses was highly honored by Greeks, Latins, and Syrians, as well as by his own people. He was sometimes designated " the second Apostle Paul of Tarsus." But this high praise is hardly deserved, and he seems to have been more of a politician than of an apostle or theologian. He was familiar with the Latin, Greek, Syriac, and Coptic languages and translated a number of works from these languages into Armenian. He wrote several commentaries and many practical works, drawing largely from the writings of Greek, Latin, Syriac, and Egyptian fathers. Among his poetical works is a somewhat lengthy necrology of his uncle Nerses IV- (St. Petersburg, 1782).
A. H. Newman.
Bibliography : In general Namenbuch, pp. 222-225, bearing names of Nerses quien, Oriens Christianus, On Nerses I. consult: J. les origines de Vicolc de Barhadbesabbe in J A, vi. School of Nisibia, its Hixti
consult: F. Justi, Iranisches Marburg, 1895 (refers to others and gives literature); M. Lei. 1345, 1375, 1399, Paris, 1740. B. Chabot, Narsai le docteur et Nisibis d'apris la chronique de 157-177; F. X. E. Albert, The r>j and St ituti't, in Catholic Uni-