 He was the first Sasanian shah to not be crowned by a noble, but by a chief priest ("mowbed").At the urging of the Zoroastrian priests, Bahram V began his reign with a systematic persecution of the Christians as reprisal for attacks against Zoroastrian temples by Christians during his reign; Bahram continued this persecution, during which many died.Among them there was James Intercisus, a political counsellor of Yazdegerd I's, who had converted to Zoroastrianism but then converted back to Christianity.