The emphasis of Renaissance Humanism on ad fontes, the return to the sources, had inevitably spread from the study and reconstruction of secular Greek and Latin texts, with a view to artistic and linguistic renewal, to the reading, study, and translation of the Church Fathers and finally the New Testament itself, with a view to religious renewal and reform. Humanist scholars, who approached theology from a new critical and comparative perspective, argued that exegesis of Scripture must be based on an accurate understanding of the language(s) and grammar(s) used in writing the Greek scriptures (New Testament) and also, later, the Hebrew Scriptures (Old Testament), rather than relying exclusively on the Vulgate, a Latin translation of the Bible, as in the Medieval period.