It is in this that the watchful care of the Church shines forth conspicuously. By her admirable laws and regulations she has always shown herself solicitous that the celestial treasure of the Sacred Books, so bountifully bestowed upon man by the Holy Spirit, should not lie neglected. She has arranged that a considerable portion of them should be read, and with pious mind considered by all her ministers in the daily office of the sacred psalmody. She has ordered that in cathedral churches, in monasteries, and in convents of other regulars, which are places most fit for study, they shall be expounded and interpreted by capable men. She has strictly commanded that her children shall be fed with the saving word of the Gospel at least on Sundays and on solemn feasts. Moreover, it is owing to the wisdom and the diligence of the Church that there has always been, continued from century to century, that cultivation of Sacred Scripture which has been so remarkable and which has borne such ample fruit. And here, in order to strengthen Our teaching and Our exhortations, it is well to recall how, from the first beginnings of the Christian religion, so many who have been renowned for holiness of life and for sacred learning have given their deep and most constant attention to Holy Scripture. If we consider the immediate disciples of the Apostles, St. Clement of Rome, St. Ignatius of Antioch, and St. Polycarp--or the Apologists, such as St. Justin and St. Irenaeus, we find that in their letters and in their books, whether in defence of the Catholic faith or in commendation of it, they draw faith and strength and unction mainly from the word of God. When there arose, in various Episcopal Sees, catechetical and theological schools, of which the most celebrated were those of Alexandria and of Antioch, there was little taught in those schools but what consisted in the reading, the unfolding, and the defence of the divine written word. From these schools came forth numbers of Fathers and of writers whose laborious studies and admirable writings have justly merited for the three following centuries the appellation of the golden age of biblical exegesis. In the Eastern Church, the greatest name of all is Origen. He was a man remarkable alike for quickness of genius and for persevering labor. From his numerous writings and his immense work of the _Hexapla_ almost all who came after him have drawn. Others who have widened the field of this science may also be named. Among the more excellent, Alexandria could boast of Clement and Cyril; Palestine, of Eusebius and the other Cyril; Cappadocia, of Basil the Great and the two Gregories, Nazianzen and Nyssene; and Antioch, of St. John Chrysostom, in whom skill in this learning was rivalled by the splendor of his eloquence.