That this Council was assembled by the Emperor _Theodosius_, is affirmed by all the Writers who speak of it[1151], nay, and by the Bishops who composed it[1152]. And yet _Baronius_ has the Assurance to assert, _as a Thing not to be questioned_, that it was convened by _Damasus_[1153], which none of the Antients have so much as once named: and this Assertion he founds upon the Authority of the universally exploded Acts of _Damasus_; of certain Manuscripts, which he knows very little of, and nobody else any thing; and of a Passage in the Acts of the Sixth Oecumenical Council, where it is said, that _Theodosius_ and _Damasus_ opposed with great Firmness the _Macedonian_ Heresy; whence the Annalist concludes, by what Rules of Logic I leave the Reader to find out, that the Council, which condemned the Heresy of _Macedonius_, was convened by the Authority of _Damasus_, backed by that of the Emperor[1154]. _Christianus Lupus_, more honest than _Baronius_, tho’ no less attached to the See of _Rome_, ingenuously owns, that the Council was assembled by the Emperor alone; but adds, that _Damasus_ confirmed it[1155]; which is true, if he means no more than that _Damasus_ accepted the Decrees made by the Council; for it was not his, but the Emperor’s Approbation, that gave them a Sanction; and accordingly they writ, not to him, but to the Emperor, acquainting him; _by whose Command they had been called together_, with the Decrees they had made, and requesting him to confirm them _with his Seal and Sentence_[1156]. This Council consisted of an Hundred and Fifty Bishops, among whom were Thirty-six _Macedonians_, whom _Theodosius_ had particularly summoned, hoping to reunite them with the Catholics[1157]. No mention is made of Letters or Deputies sent either by _Damasus_, or by any of the Western Bishops; and _Theodoret_ assures us in Two different Places[1158], that _Theodosius_ only assembled the Eastern Bishops. _Meletius_ of _Antioch_ presided; for _Gregory_ of _Nyssa_ styled him in full Council, _our Father and Head_[1159]. Upon his Death (for he died while the Council was sitting) that Honour was conferred on _Gregory Nazianzen_, appointed by the Emperor and the Council Bishop of _Constantinople_[1160]; but he resigning, soon after, his new Dignity, his Successor _Nectarius_ was named to preside in his room[1161].