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==Humanism and the Church==

The humanists were intellectuals who were mostly interested in scholarly pursuits. They sought to understand the ancient world, in order to find answers and knowledge and they studied ancient texts in order to achieve this. They wanted to go back to the original texts in order to understand the past and in particular wanted to remove medieval corruptions and additions to texts. Their cry was ‘Ad Fontas’ in Latin, which is in English ‘to the sources’.<ref> Payton, p. 57</ref> They studied the ancient texts and developed textual strategies to understand the great works of the classical past. The Humanists were better able to understand the works of the past after developing ways to analyse texts. The development of textual criticism was not only of academic interest but was to change the way that people came to see the Church and was ultimately to undermine the authority of the Pope. The power of the Church rested on the authority of the Pope and the prelates which was ultimately based on tradition.<ref> Patrick, p. 121</ref>