History of vegetarianism
Encyclopedia
Vegetarianism
is the theory and practice of the voluntarily non-consumption of the flesh of any animal
(including sea animal
s) with or without also eschewing other animal derivatives, such as dairy product
s or egg
s. The earliest records of vegetarianism as a concept and practice amongst a significant number of people concern ancient India
and the ancient Greek civilization in southern Italy and in Greece. In both instances the diet was closely connected with the idea of nonviolence
toward animals (called ahinsa in India) and was promoted by religious groups and philosophers. Following the Christianization of the Roman Empire in late antiquity, vegetarianism practically disappeared from Europe. Several orders of monks in medieval Europe restricted or banned the consumption of meat for ascetic
reasons, but none of them abstained from consumption of fish. So these monks were not vegetarians, but some of them were pescetarians
. Vegetarianism was to reemerge somewhat in Europe during the Renaissance. It became a more widespread practice in the 19th and 20th centuries.
(the predecessor of Hinduism
).
, the earliest Jain leader (Tirthankara) whom modern Western historians consider to be a historical figure, lived in the 8th or 7th century BC. He is said to have preached nonviolence no less radically than it was practiced in the Jain community
in the times of Mahavira
(6th century BC).
Not everyone who refused to participate in any killing or injuring of animals also abstained from the consumption of meat. Hence the question of Buddhist vegetarianism in the earliest stages of that religion’s development is controversial. There are two schools of thought. One says that the Buddha and his followers ate meat offered to them by hosts or alms-givers if they had no reason to suspect that the animal had been slaughtered specifically for their sake. The other one says that the Buddha and his community of monks (sangha
) were strict vegetarians and the habit of accepting alms of meat was only tolerated later on, after a decline of discipline.
The first opinion is supported by several passages in the Pali version of the Tripitaka
, the opposite one by some Mahayana
texts. All those sources were put into writing several centuries after the death of the Buddha. They may reflect the conflicting positions of different wings or currents within the Buddhist community in its early stage. According to the Vinaya Pitaka
, the first schism
happened when the Buddha was still alive: a group of monks led by Devadatta
left the community because they wanted stricter rules, including an unconditional ban on meat eating.
The Mahaparinibbana Sutta
, which narrates the end of the Buddha's life, states that he died after eating sukara-maddava, a term translated by some as pork, by others as mushrooms (or an unknown vegetable).
The Buddhist emperor Ashoka
(304 BCE – 232 BCE) was a vegetarian. and a determined promoter of nonviolence to animals. He promulgated detailed laws aimed at the protection of many species, abolished animal sacrifice at his court, and admonished the population to avoid all kinds of unnecessary killing and injury. Ashoka
has asserted protection to fauna , from his edicts we could understand,
i.e.:-
"Twenty-six years after my coronation various animals were declared to be protected—parrots, mainas, aruna, ruddy geese, wild ducks, nandimukhas, gelatas, bats, queen ants, terrapins, boneless fish, vedareyaka, gangapuputaka, sankiya fish, tortoises, porcupines, squirrels, deer, bulls, okapinda, wild asses, wild pigeons, domestic pigeons and all four-footed creatures that are neither useful nor edible. Those nanny goats, ewes and sows which are with young or giving milk to their young are protected, and so are young ones less than six months old. Cocks are not to be caponized, husks hiding living beings are not to be burnt and forests are not to be burnt either without reason or to kill creatures. One animal is not to be fed to another."
—Edicts of Ashoka
on Fifth Pillar
Theravada
Buddhists used to observe the regulation of the Pali canon
which allowed them to eat meat unless the animal had been slaughtered specifically for them. In the Mahayana
school some scriptures advocated vegetarianism; a particularly uncompromising one was the famous Lankavatara Sutra
written in the fourth or fifth century CE.
, which lasted from the middle of the second millennium BC to the middle of the first. According to the opinion prevailing among modern scholars, ritual animal sacrifice with subsequent eating of the meat was a predominant custom, and the principle of ahimsa (nonviolence) was either hardly known or not respected. However, only members of the priestly caste (Brahmin
s), i.e. a small part of the population, were entitled to perform such rites, and the sources are silent about the diet of the masses. The earliest unequivocal reference to the idea of nonviolence to animals is in the Kapisthala Katha Samhita of the Black Yajurveda (KapS 31.11), which may have been written in about the 8th century BC. The Chandogya Upanishad
, dated to the 8th or 7th century BC, one of the oldest Upanishads, bars violence against animals except in the case of ritual sacrifice (8.15.1). The same view is expressed in the Mahabharata
(3.199.11-12; 13.115; 13.116.26; 13.148.17) and in the Bhagavata Purana
(11.5.13-14).
The Manu Smriti
composed between ca. 200 BC and ca. 200 AD, a highly authoritative Hindu lawbook, contains in its fifth chapter many diet rules (5.5-55). In some passages it defends ritual sacrifice of specific animals and eating of their meat (5.27-44). It claims that such killing is not really violence (himsa), and suggest that it is rather a benevolent act, because the slaughtered animal will attain a high rebirth in the cycle of reincarnation
(5.32; 5.39-40; 5.42; 5.44). All slaughter except in the context of ritual is strongly condemned, and the text states that the seller and buyer of such meat, as well as the cook and the eater, are all killers on the same grounds as the butcher (5.44-55, especially 5.48; 5.51).
In the following centuries, the principle of universal non-violence to animals was accepted in wide parts of the population. When the famous Chinese Buddhist monk Faxian
visited the Magadha
region of India in the early 5th century AD, he found that people abstain from taking life. ... They do not breed pigs or poultry or sell any animal food.
Vegetarianism was (and still is) mandatory for the yogis, both for the practitioners of Hatha Yoga
and for the disciples of the Vaishnava schools of Bhakti Yoga
(especially the Gaudiya Vaishnavas
). A bhakta (devotee) offers all his food to Vishnu
or Krishna
as prasad
before eating it and only vegetarian food can be accepted as prasad.
In the Colonial Era (1757–1947) upper class Indians, especially the Brahmin
s (poor or not), were vegetarians, whilst poor Shudra
s (members of the lowest caste
) were reported to be mostly non-vegetarians as a result of not having many choices.
In Europe during classical antiquity
the vegetarian diet was called abstinence from beings with a soul (Greek ). As a principle or deliberate way of life it was always limited to a rather small number of practitioners belonging to specific philosophical schools or certain religious groups.
The earliest European references to a vegetarian diet occur in Homer
(Odyssey
9, 82–104) and Herodotus
(4, 177), who mention the Lotophagi (Lotus-eaters), an indigene people on the North African coast, who according to Herodotus lived on nothing but the fruits of a plant called lotus. Diodorus Siculus
(3, 23–24) transmits tales of vegetarian peoples or tribes in Ethiopia
, and further stories of this kind are narrated and discussed in ancient sources. All of them, however, display legendary traits or appear in a mythical context; hence they cannot be regarded as evidence for the historical existence of such peoples.
The earliest reliable evidence for vegetarian theory and practice in Europe dates from the 6th century BC. The Orphics
, a religious movement spreading in Greece at that time, and Pythagoras
, a philosopher and religious leader in the area of Southern Italy colonized by Greek settlers, abstained from the flesh of animals. The followers of Pythagoras (called Pythagoreans) did not always practice strict vegetarianism, but at least their inner circle did. For the general public, abstention from meat was a hallmark of the so-called “Pythagorean way of life”. Both Orphics and strict Pythagoreans also avoided eggs and shunned the ritual offerings of meat to the gods which were an essential part of traditional religious sacrifice. In the 5th century BC the philosopher Empedocles
distinguished himself as a radical advocate of vegetarianism specifically and of respect for animals in general.
The ancient vegetarians held that consumption of meat hampered their ascetic and philosophical endeavors. Most of them also gave ethical reasons for their attitudes, rejected the common religious practice of animal sacrifice, and emphasized the common traits of humans and other species. Their opponents pointed to the differences between man and animals in response. The question of whether there are any ethical duties toward animals was hotly debated, and the arguments in dispute were quite similar to the ones familiar in modern discussions on animal rights
. Vegetarianism was usually part and parcel of religious convictions connected with the concept of transmigration of the soul (metempsychosis
). There was a widely held belief, popular among both vegetarians and non-vegetarians, that in the Golden Age
of the beginning of humanity mankind was strictly non-violent. In that utopian state of the world hunting, livestock breeding, and meat-eating, as well as agriculture were unknown and unnecessary, as the earth spontaneously produced in abundance all the food its inhabitants needed. This myth is recorded by Hesiod
(Works and Days 109sqq.), Plato
(Statesman 271–2), the famous Roman poet Ovid
(Metamorphoses 1,89sqq.), and others. Ovid also praised the Pythagorean ideal of universal nonviolence (Metamorphoses 15,72sqq.).
Among the Platonists vegetarian and pro-animal thought was comparatively strong, while in other ancient schools of philosophy (Peripatetics, Stoics
, Epicureans
) it was virtually nonexistent. Almost all the Stoics were emphatically anti-vegetarian (with the prominent exception of Seneca
). They insisted on the absence of reason in brutes, leading them to conclude that there cannot be any ethical obligations or restraints in dealing with the world of irrational animals. As for the followers of the Cynic School, their extremely frugal way of life entailed a practically meatless diet, but they did not make vegetarianism their maxim.
In the Platonic Academy
the scholarchs (school heads) Xenocrates
and (probably) Polemon
pleaded for vegetarianism. In the Peripatetic school Theophrastus
, Aristotle’s immediate successor, supported it. Some of the prominent Platonists and Neo-Platonists
in the age of the Roman Empire lived on a vegetarian diet. These included Plutarch
(who seems to have adopted vegetarianism only temporarily), Apollonius of Tyana
, Plotinus
, and Porphyry
. Porphyry wrote a treatise On abstinence from beings with a soul, the most elaborate ancient pro-vegetarian text known to us.
Among the Manicheans
, a major religious movement founded in the third century AD, there was an elite group called Electi (the chosen) who were Lacto-Vegetarians for ethical reasons and abode by a commandment which strictly banned killing. Common Manicheans called Auditores (Hearers) obeyed looser rules of nonviolence.
Christian scholars place the creation event somewhere around 4000 B.C. (but it could be even earlier depending on how the Hebrew words "son" & "father" are translated in the genealogies since they can also mean descendant or ancestor). This would make the Bible about the oldest source of vegetarianism in the world. Later at Noah's time and in Israel's time the Bible gave permission for meat eating, but made a clear distinction between clean meat and unclean/unhealthy meat in Genesis 6 and esp. Leviticus 11 (Dr. Macht demonstrated a 100% correlation in toxicity levels with the Bible's clean-unclean specifications in a series of experiments in an article entitled "An Experimental Pharmacological Appreciation of Leviticus XI and Deuteronomy XIV" in the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, published by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine) . But, the vegetarian diet was the original ideal.
Christians who follow Biblical health principles (only a few, such as Adventists, do) that include vegetarianism even today live about 10 years longer than the average American according to research reported by the Blue Zones research foundation, National Geographic Magazine, the National Institute of Health and others. Some later cultures not based on the Bible also emphasize a plant based diet and experience significant benefits from vegetarianism.
Some of the early Christians in the apostolic era were concerned that eating meat sacrificed to idols might result in ritual pollution. The Apostle Paul emphatically rejected that view (Romans 14:2-21; compare 1 Corinthians 8:8-9, Colossians 2:20-22).
"Meat was often sacrificed on pagan altars and dedicated to pagan gods in Paul's day. Later this meat was offered for sale in the public meat markets. Some Christians wondered if it were morally right for Christians to eat such meat that had previously been sacrificed to pagan gods."
Many early Christians were vegetarian such as Clement of Alexandria, Origen, John Chrysostom, Basil the Great and others. Some early church writings suggest that Matthew, Peter & James were vegetarian. The historian Eusebius writes that the Apostle “Matthew partook of seeds, nuts and vegetables, without flesh.” Clement of Alexandria wrote, “It is far better to be happy than to have your bodies act as graveyards for animals.” Saint Porphyry wrote an entire book entitled On Abstinence from Animal Food which compiled most of the classical thought on the subject.
In late antiquity and in the Middle Ages many monks and hermits renounced meat-eating in the context of their asceticism. The most prominent of them was St Jerome
(† 419), whom they used to take as their model. The Rule of St Benedict
(6th century) allowed the Benedictine
s to eat fish and fowl, but forbade the consumption of the meat of quadrupeds unless the religious was ill. Many other rules of religious orders contained similar restrictions of diet, some of which even included fowl, but fish was never prohibited, as Christ himself had eaten fish (Luke 24:42-43). The concern of those monks and nuns was frugality, voluntary privation, and self-mortification. William of Malmesbury writes that Bishop Wulfstan of Worcester (d. 1095) decided to adhere to a strict vegetarian diet simply because he found it difficult to resist the smell of roasted goose. Saint Genevieve
, the Patron Saint of Paris
, is mentioned as having observed a vegetarian diet - but as an act of physical austerity, rather than out of concern for animals. Medieval hermits, at least those portrayed in literature, may have been vegetarians for similar reasons, as suggested in a passage from Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur
: 'Then departed Gawain and Ector as heavy (sad) as they might for their misadventure (mishap), and so rode till that they came to the rough mountain, and there they tied their horses and went on foot to the hermitage. And when they were (had) come up, they saw a poor house, and beside the chapel a little courtelage (courtyard), where Nacien the hermit gathered worts (vegetables), as he which had tasted none other meat (food) of a great while.'
There is no evidence for any ethically motivated vegetarianism in ancient and medieval Catholicism or in the Eastern Churches. There were instances of compassion to animals, but no explicit objection to the act of slaughter per se. The most influential theologians, St Augustine
and St Thomas Aquinas, emphasized that man owes no duties to animals. Even for St Francis of Assisi
, who used to refer to the animal world in his mystic language, there is no hint in contemporary sources that he ever practised or advocated vegetarianism.
Many ancient heretics
, such as the Encratites
, the Ebionites
, and the Eustathians, considered abstention from meat-eating an essential part of their asceticism. Medieval heretics, such as the Bogomils and the Cathars, also despised the consumption of meat.
that vegetarianism reemerged in Europe as a philosophical concept based on an ethical motivation. Among the first celebrities who supported it were Leonardo da Vinci
(1452–1519) and Pierre Gassendi
(1592–1655). In the 17th century the paramount theorist of the meatless or “Pythagorean” diet was the English writer Thomas Tryon
(1634–1703). On the other hand, influential philosophers such as René Descartes
(1596–1650) and Immanuel Kant
(1724–1804) were of the opinion that there cannot be any ethical duties whatsoever toward animals. By the end of the 18th century in England the claim that animals were made only for man's use (anthropocentrism
) was still being advanced, but no longer carried general assent. Very soon, it would disappear altogether.
In America there were small groups of Christian vegetarians in the 18th century. The best known of them was Ephrata Cloister
in Pennsylvania, a religious community founded by Conrad Beissel
in 1732. Benjamin Franklin
became a vegetarian at the age of 16, but later on he reluctantly returned to meat eating.
During the Age of Enlightenment
and in the early nineteenth century, England was the place where vegetarian ideas were more welcome than anywhere else in Europe, and the English vegetarians were particularly enthusiastic about the practical implementation of their principles. The most prominent advocate of an ethically motivated vegetarianism in the early 19th century was the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley
(1792–1822). In 1847 the Vegetarian Society
was founded by the 140 participants of a conference at Ramsgate
. In 1853 the Society already had 889 members. English vegetarians were a small but highly motivated and active group. Many of them believed in simple life and "pure" food, humanitarian ideals and strict moral principles.
In the United States, Reverend William Metcalfe (1788–1862), a pacifist and a prominent member of the Bible-Christian Church, preached vegetarianism. He and Sylvester Graham
, the mentor of the Grahamites and inventor of the Graham crackers, were among the founders of the American Vegetarian Society in 1850. Ellen G. White
, one of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
, became an advocate of vegetarianism, and the Church has recommended a meatless diet ever since.
In Russia Leo Tolstoy
(1828–1910) was the most outstanding supporter of vegetarianism.
In Germany the well-known politician, publicist and revolutionist Gustav Struve
(1805–1870) was a leading figure in the initial stage of the vegetarian movement. He was inspired by Rousseau
’s treatise Émile
. Many vegetarian associations were founded in the last third of the century and the Order of the Golden Age went on to achieve particular prominence beyond the Food Reform movement.
Vegetarianism was frequently associated with cultural reform movements, such as temperance
and anti-vivisection
. It was propagated as an essential part of "the natural way of life." Some of its champions sharply criticized the civilization of their age and strove to improve public health.
, a union of the national societies, was founded in 1908. In the Western world
, the popularity of vegetarianism grew during the 20th century as a result of nutritional, ethical, and more recently, environmental
and economic concerns. Henry Stephens Salt
and George Bernard Shaw
were famous vegetarian activists.
The Indian concept of nonviolence had a growing impact in the Western world. The model of Mahatma Gandhi
, a strong and uncompromising advocate of nonviolence toward animals, contributed to the popularization of vegetarianism in Western countries. The study of Far-Eastern religious and philosophical concepts of nonviolence was also instrumental in the shaping of Albert Schweitzer
’s principle of “reverence for life”, which is still today a common argument in discussions on ethical aspects of diet. But Schweitzer himself started to practise vegetarianism only shortly before his death.
, are estimated to make up more than 70 percent of the world's vegetarians. They make up 20–42 percent of the population in India, while less than 30 percent are regular meat-eaters.
Surveys in the U.S. have found that roughly 1–2.8 percent of adults eat no meat, poultry, or fish.
Vegetarianism
Vegetarianism encompasses the practice of following plant-based diets , with or without the inclusion of dairy products or eggs, and with the exclusion of meat...
is the theory and practice of the voluntarily non-consumption of the flesh of any animal
Animal
Animals are a major group of multicellular, eukaryotic organisms of the kingdom Animalia or Metazoa. Their body plan eventually becomes fixed as they develop, although some undergo a process of metamorphosis later on in their life. Most animals are motile, meaning they can move spontaneously and...
(including sea animal
Seafood
Seafood is any form of marine life regarded as food by humans. Seafoods include fish, molluscs , crustaceans , echinoderms . Edible sea plants, such as some seaweeds and microalgae, are also seafood, and are widely eaten around the world, especially in Asia...
s) with or without also eschewing other animal derivatives, such as dairy product
Dairy product
Dairy products are generally defined as foods produced from cow's or domestic buffalo's milk. They are usually high-energy-yielding food products. A production plant for such processing is called a dairy or a dairy factory. Raw milk for processing comes mainly from cows, and, to a lesser extent,...
s or egg
Egg (food)
Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have probably been eaten by mankind for millennia. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen , and vitellus , contained within various thin membranes...
s. The earliest records of vegetarianism as a concept and practice amongst a significant number of people concern ancient India
History of India
The history of India begins with evidence of human activity of Homo sapiens as long as 75,000 years ago, or with earlier hominids including Homo erectus from about 500,000 years ago. The Indus Valley Civilization, which spread and flourished in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent from...
and the ancient Greek civilization in southern Italy and in Greece. In both instances the diet was closely connected with the idea of nonviolence
Nonviolence
Nonviolence has two meanings. It can refer, first, to a general philosophy of abstention from violence because of moral or religious principle It can refer to the behaviour of people using nonviolent action Nonviolence has two (closely related) meanings. (1) It can refer, first, to a general...
toward animals (called ahinsa in India) and was promoted by religious groups and philosophers. Following the Christianization of the Roman Empire in late antiquity, vegetarianism practically disappeared from Europe. Several orders of monks in medieval Europe restricted or banned the consumption of meat for ascetic
Asceticism
Asceticism describes a lifestyle characterized by abstinence from various sorts of worldly pleasures often with the aim of pursuing religious and spiritual goals...
reasons, but none of them abstained from consumption of fish. So these monks were not vegetarians, but some of them were pescetarians
Pescetarianism
Pescetarianism is the practice of a diet that includes seafood but not the flesh of other animals.In addition to fish and/or shellfish, a pescetarian diet typically includes all of vegetables, fruit, nuts, grains, beans, eggs and dairy...
. Vegetarianism was to reemerge somewhat in Europe during the Renaissance. It became a more widespread practice in the 19th and 20th centuries.
India
In ancient India vegetarianism was practiced by the Jains, by a part of the Buddhist community, and by a part of the followers of the historical Vedic religionHistorical Vedic religion
The religion of the Vedic period is a historical predecessor of Hinduism. Its liturgy is reflected in the mantra portion of the four Vedas, which are compiled in Sanskrit. The religious practices centered on a clergy administering rites...
(the predecessor of Hinduism
Hinduism
Hinduism is the predominant and indigenous religious tradition of the Indian Subcontinent. Hinduism is known to its followers as , amongst many other expressions...
).
Early Buddhism and Jainism
Jain and Buddhist sources show that the principle of nonviolence toward animals was an established rule in both religions as early as the 6th century BC. The Jain concept, which is particularly strict, may be even much older. ParshvaParshva
Pārśva or Paras was the twenty-third Tirthankara "Ford-Maker" in Jainism . He is the earliest Jain leader generally accepted as a historical figure. Pārśva was a nobleman belonging to the Kshatriya varna....
, the earliest Jain leader (Tirthankara) whom modern Western historians consider to be a historical figure, lived in the 8th or 7th century BC. He is said to have preached nonviolence no less radically than it was practiced in the Jain community
Jain community
The Jains in India have been the last direct representatives of the Shramana tradition in India. They follow Jainism, as the dharma taught by the 24 Tirthankaras, the last of whom was Mahavira.-Cultural influence:...
in the times of Mahavira
Mahavira
Mahāvīra is the name most commonly used to refer to the Indian sage Vardhamāna who established what are today considered to be the central tenets of Jainism. According to Jain tradition, he was the 24th and the last Tirthankara. In Tamil, he is referred to as Arukaṉ or Arukadevan...
(6th century BC).
Not everyone who refused to participate in any killing or injuring of animals also abstained from the consumption of meat. Hence the question of Buddhist vegetarianism in the earliest stages of that religion’s development is controversial. There are two schools of thought. One says that the Buddha and his followers ate meat offered to them by hosts or alms-givers if they had no reason to suspect that the animal had been slaughtered specifically for their sake. The other one says that the Buddha and his community of monks (sangha
Sangha
Sangha is a word in Pali or Sanskrit that can be translated roughly as "association" or "assembly," "company" or "community" with common goal, vision or purpose...
) were strict vegetarians and the habit of accepting alms of meat was only tolerated later on, after a decline of discipline.
The first opinion is supported by several passages in the Pali version of the Tripitaka
Tripiṭaka
' is a traditional term used by various Buddhist sects to describe their various canons of scriptures. As the name suggests, a traditionally contains three "baskets" of teachings: a , a and an .-The three categories:Tripitaka is the three main categories of texts that make up the...
, the opposite one by some Mahayana
Mahayana
Mahāyāna is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice...
texts. All those sources were put into writing several centuries after the death of the Buddha. They may reflect the conflicting positions of different wings or currents within the Buddhist community in its early stage. According to the Vinaya Pitaka
Vinaya Pitaka
The ' is a Buddhist scripture, one of the three parts that make up the Tripitaka. Its primary subject matter is the monastic rules for monks and nuns...
, the first schism
Schism (religion)
A schism , from Greek σχίσμα, skhísma , is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization or movement religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a break of communion between two sections of Christianity that were previously a single body, or to a division within...
happened when the Buddha was still alive: a group of monks led by Devadatta
Devadatta
Devadatta was by tradition a Buddhist monk, cousin and brother-in-law of Gautama Siddārtha, the Śākyamuni Buddha, and brother of Ānanda, a principal student of the Buddha...
left the community because they wanted stricter rules, including an unconditional ban on meat eating.
The Mahaparinibbana Sutta
Mahaparinibbana Sutta
For the Mahayana Mahaparinirvana Sutra see Nirvana Sutra.----The Mahaparinibbana Sutta is a Theravada Buddhist sutta in the Digha Nikaya of the Tipitaka...
, which narrates the end of the Buddha's life, states that he died after eating sukara-maddava, a term translated by some as pork, by others as mushrooms (or an unknown vegetable).
The Buddhist emperor Ashoka
Ashoka
Ashok Maurya or Ashoka , popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was an Indian emperor of the Maurya Dynasty who ruled almost all of the Indian subcontinent from ca. 269 BC to 232 BC. One of India's greatest emperors, Ashoka reigned over most of present-day India after a number of military conquests...
(304 BCE – 232 BCE) was a vegetarian. and a determined promoter of nonviolence to animals. He promulgated detailed laws aimed at the protection of many species, abolished animal sacrifice at his court, and admonished the population to avoid all kinds of unnecessary killing and injury. Ashoka
Ashoka
Ashok Maurya or Ashoka , popularly known as Ashoka the Great, was an Indian emperor of the Maurya Dynasty who ruled almost all of the Indian subcontinent from ca. 269 BC to 232 BC. One of India's greatest emperors, Ashoka reigned over most of present-day India after a number of military conquests...
has asserted protection to fauna , from his edicts we could understand,
i.e.:-
"Twenty-six years after my coronation various animals were declared to be protected—parrots, mainas, aruna, ruddy geese, wild ducks, nandimukhas, gelatas, bats, queen ants, terrapins, boneless fish, vedareyaka, gangapuputaka, sankiya fish, tortoises, porcupines, squirrels, deer, bulls, okapinda, wild asses, wild pigeons, domestic pigeons and all four-footed creatures that are neither useful nor edible. Those nanny goats, ewes and sows which are with young or giving milk to their young are protected, and so are young ones less than six months old. Cocks are not to be caponized, husks hiding living beings are not to be burnt and forests are not to be burnt either without reason or to kill creatures. One animal is not to be fed to another."
—Edicts of Ashoka
Edicts of Ashoka
The Edicts of Ashoka are a collection of 33 inscriptions on the Pillars of Ashoka, as well as boulders and cave walls, made by the Emperor Ashoka of the Mauryan dynasty during his reign from 269 BCE to 231 BCE. These inscriptions are dispersed throughout the areas of modern-day Bangladesh, India,...
on Fifth Pillar
Theravada
Theravada
Theravada ; literally, "the Teaching of the Elders" or "the Ancient Teaching", is the oldest surviving Buddhist school. It was founded in India...
Buddhists used to observe the regulation of the Pali canon
Pāli Canon
The Pāli Canon is the standard collection of scriptures in the Theravada Buddhist tradition, as preserved in the Pāli language. It is the only completely surviving early Buddhist canon, and one of the first to be written down...
which allowed them to eat meat unless the animal had been slaughtered specifically for them. In the Mahayana
Mahayana
Mahāyāna is one of the two main existing branches of Buddhism and a term for classification of Buddhist philosophies and practice...
school some scriptures advocated vegetarianism; a particularly uncompromising one was the famous Lankavatara Sutra
Lankavatara Sutra
The Laṅkāvatāra Sūtra is a sutra of Mahāyāna Buddhism. The sūtra recounts a teaching primarily between the Buddha and a bodhisattva named Mahāmati...
written in the fourth or fifth century CE.
Historical Vedic religion and Hinduism
Few source texts have survived from the Vedic periodVedic period
The Vedic period was a period in history during which the Vedas, the oldest scriptures of Hinduism, were composed. The time span of the period is uncertain. Philological and linguistic evidence indicates that the Rigveda, the oldest of the Vedas, was composed roughly between 1700–1100 BCE, also...
, which lasted from the middle of the second millennium BC to the middle of the first. According to the opinion prevailing among modern scholars, ritual animal sacrifice with subsequent eating of the meat was a predominant custom, and the principle of ahimsa (nonviolence) was either hardly known or not respected. However, only members of the priestly caste (Brahmin
Brahmin
Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...
s), i.e. a small part of the population, were entitled to perform such rites, and the sources are silent about the diet of the masses. The earliest unequivocal reference to the idea of nonviolence to animals is in the Kapisthala Katha Samhita of the Black Yajurveda (KapS 31.11), which may have been written in about the 8th century BC. The Chandogya Upanishad
Chandogya Upanishad
The Chandogya Upanishad is one of the "primary" Upanishads. Together with the Jaiminiya Upanishad Brahmana and the Brihadaranyaka Upanishad it ranks among the oldest Upanishads, dating to the Vedic Brahmana period....
, dated to the 8th or 7th century BC, one of the oldest Upanishads, bars violence against animals except in the case of ritual sacrifice (8.15.1). The same view is expressed in the Mahabharata
Mahabharata
The Mahabharata is one of the two major Sanskrit epics of ancient India and Nepal, the other being the Ramayana. The epic is part of itihasa....
(3.199.11-12; 13.115; 13.116.26; 13.148.17) and in the Bhagavata Purana
Bhagavata purana
The Bhāgavata Purāṇa is one of the "Maha" Puranic texts of Hindu literature, with its primary focus on bhakti to the incarnations of Vishnu, particularly Krishna...
(11.5.13-14).
The Manu Smriti
Manu Smriti
' , also known as Mānava-Dharmaśāstra , is the most important and earliest metrical work of the Dharmaśāstra textual tradition of Hinduism...
composed between ca. 200 BC and ca. 200 AD, a highly authoritative Hindu lawbook, contains in its fifth chapter many diet rules (5.5-55). In some passages it defends ritual sacrifice of specific animals and eating of their meat (5.27-44). It claims that such killing is not really violence (himsa), and suggest that it is rather a benevolent act, because the slaughtered animal will attain a high rebirth in the cycle of reincarnation
Reincarnation
Reincarnation best describes the concept where the soul or spirit, after the death of the body, is believed to return to live in a new human body, or, in some traditions, either as a human being, animal or plant...
(5.32; 5.39-40; 5.42; 5.44). All slaughter except in the context of ritual is strongly condemned, and the text states that the seller and buyer of such meat, as well as the cook and the eater, are all killers on the same grounds as the butcher (5.44-55, especially 5.48; 5.51).
In the following centuries, the principle of universal non-violence to animals was accepted in wide parts of the population. When the famous Chinese Buddhist monk Faxian
Faxian
Faxian was a Chinese Buddhist monk who traveled to India, Sri Lanka and Kapilavastu in today's Nepal between 399 and 412 to acquire Buddhist scriptures...
visited the Magadha
Magadha
Magadha formed one of the sixteen Mahājanapadas or kingdoms in ancient India. The core of the kingdom was the area of Bihar south of the Ganga; its first capital was Rajagriha then Pataliputra...
region of India in the early 5th century AD, he found that people abstain from taking life. ... They do not breed pigs or poultry or sell any animal food.
Vegetarianism was (and still is) mandatory for the yogis, both for the practitioners of Hatha Yoga
Hatha yoga
Hatha yoga , also called hatha vidya , is a system of yoga introduced by Yogi Swatmarama, a Hindu sage of 15th century India, and compiler of the Hatha Yoga Pradipika....
and for the disciples of the Vaishnava schools of Bhakti Yoga
Bhakti yoga
Bhakti yoga is one of the types of yoga mentioned in Hindu philosophies which denotes the spiritual practice of fostering loving devotion to a personal form of God....
(especially the Gaudiya Vaishnavas
Gaudiya Vaishnavism
Gaudiya Vaishnavism is a Vaishnava religious movement founded by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu in India in the 16th century. "Gaudiya" refers to the Gauḍa region with Vaishnavism meaning "the worship of Vishnu"...
). A bhakta (devotee) offers all his food to Vishnu
Vishnu
Vishnu is the Supreme god in the Vaishnavite tradition of Hinduism. Smarta followers of Adi Shankara, among others, venerate Vishnu as one of the five primary forms of God....
or Krishna
Krishna
Krishna is a central figure of Hinduism and is traditionally attributed the authorship of the Bhagavad Gita. He is the supreme Being and considered in some monotheistic traditions as an Avatar of Vishnu...
as prasad
Prasad
Prasād is a mental condition of generosity, as well as a material substance that is first offered to a deity and then consumed...
before eating it and only vegetarian food can be accepted as prasad.
In the Colonial Era (1757–1947) upper class Indians, especially the Brahmin
Brahmin
Brahmin Brahman, Brahma and Brahmin.Brahman, Brahmin and Brahma have different meanings. Brahman refers to the Supreme Self...
s (poor or not), were vegetarians, whilst poor Shudra
Shudra
Shudra is the fourth Varna, as prescribed in the Purusha Sukta of the Rig veda, which constitutes society into four varnas or Chaturvarna. The other three varnas are Brahmans - priests, Kshatriya - those with governing functions, Vaishya - agriculturalists, cattle rearers and traders...
s (members of the lowest caste
Caste
Caste is an elaborate and complex social system that combines elements of endogamy, occupation, culture, social class, tribal affiliation and political power. It should not be confused with race or social class, e.g. members of different castes in one society may belong to the same race, as in India...
) were reported to be mostly non-vegetarians as a result of not having many choices.
Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
the vegetarian diet was called abstinence from beings with a soul (Greek ). As a principle or deliberate way of life it was always limited to a rather small number of practitioners belonging to specific philosophical schools or certain religious groups.
The earliest European references to a vegetarian diet occur in Homer
Homer
In the Western classical tradition Homer , is the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, and is revered as the greatest ancient Greek epic poet. These epics lie at the beginning of the Western canon of literature, and have had an enormous influence on the history of literature.When he lived is...
(Odyssey
Odyssey
The Odyssey is one of two major ancient Greek epic poems attributed to Homer. It is, in part, a sequel to the Iliad, the other work ascribed to Homer. The poem is fundamental to the modern Western canon, and is the second—the Iliad being the first—extant work of Western literature...
9, 82–104) and Herodotus
Herodotus
Herodotus was an ancient Greek historian who was born in Halicarnassus, Caria and lived in the 5th century BC . He has been called the "Father of History", and was the first historian known to collect his materials systematically, test their accuracy to a certain extent and arrange them in a...
(4, 177), who mention the Lotophagi (Lotus-eaters), an indigene people on the North African coast, who according to Herodotus lived on nothing but the fruits of a plant called lotus. Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus
Diodorus Siculus was a Greek historian who flourished between 60 and 30 BC. According to Diodorus' own work, he was born at Agyrium in Sicily . With one exception, antiquity affords no further information about Diodorus' life and doings beyond what is to be found in his own work, Bibliotheca...
(3, 23–24) transmits tales of vegetarian peoples or tribes in Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
, and further stories of this kind are narrated and discussed in ancient sources. All of them, however, display legendary traits or appear in a mythical context; hence they cannot be regarded as evidence for the historical existence of such peoples.
The earliest reliable evidence for vegetarian theory and practice in Europe dates from the 6th century BC. The Orphics
Orphism (religion)
Orphism is the name given to a set of religious beliefs and practices in the ancient Greek and the Hellenistic world, as well as by the Thracians, associated with literature ascribed to the mythical poet Orpheus, who descended into Hades and returned...
, a religious movement spreading in Greece at that time, and Pythagoras
Pythagoras
Pythagoras of Samos was an Ionian Greek philosopher, mathematician, and founder of the religious movement called Pythagoreanism. Most of the information about Pythagoras was written down centuries after he lived, so very little reliable information is known about him...
, a philosopher and religious leader in the area of Southern Italy colonized by Greek settlers, abstained from the flesh of animals. The followers of Pythagoras (called Pythagoreans) did not always practice strict vegetarianism, but at least their inner circle did. For the general public, abstention from meat was a hallmark of the so-called “Pythagorean way of life”. Both Orphics and strict Pythagoreans also avoided eggs and shunned the ritual offerings of meat to the gods which were an essential part of traditional religious sacrifice. In the 5th century BC the philosopher Empedocles
Empedocles
Empedocles was a Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a citizen of Agrigentum, a Greek city in Sicily. Empedocles' philosophy is best known for being the originator of the cosmogenic theory of the four Classical elements...
distinguished himself as a radical advocate of vegetarianism specifically and of respect for animals in general.
The ancient vegetarians held that consumption of meat hampered their ascetic and philosophical endeavors. Most of them also gave ethical reasons for their attitudes, rejected the common religious practice of animal sacrifice, and emphasized the common traits of humans and other species. Their opponents pointed to the differences between man and animals in response. The question of whether there are any ethical duties toward animals was hotly debated, and the arguments in dispute were quite similar to the ones familiar in modern discussions on animal rights
Animal rights
Animal rights, also known as animal liberation, is the idea that the most basic interests of non-human animals should be afforded the same consideration as the similar interests of human beings...
. Vegetarianism was usually part and parcel of religious convictions connected with the concept of transmigration of the soul (metempsychosis
Metempsychosis
Metempsychosis is a philosophical term in the Greek language referring to transmigration of the soul, especially its reincarnation after death. It is a doctrine popular among a number of Eastern religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Druzism wherein an individual incarnates from one...
). There was a widely held belief, popular among both vegetarians and non-vegetarians, that in the Golden Age
Golden Age
The term Golden Age comes from Greek mythology and legend and refers to the first in a sequence of four or five Ages of Man, in which the Golden Age is first, followed in sequence, by the Silver, Bronze, and Iron Ages, and then the present, a period of decline...
of the beginning of humanity mankind was strictly non-violent. In that utopian state of the world hunting, livestock breeding, and meat-eating, as well as agriculture were unknown and unnecessary, as the earth spontaneously produced in abundance all the food its inhabitants needed. This myth is recorded by Hesiod
Hesiod
Hesiod was a Greek oral poet generally thought by scholars to have been active between 750 and 650 BC, around the same time as Homer. His is the first European poetry in which the poet regards himself as a topic, an individual with a distinctive role to play. Ancient authors credited him and...
(Works and Days 109sqq.), Plato
Plato
Plato , was a Classical Greek philosopher, mathematician, student of Socrates, writer of philosophical dialogues, and founder of the Academy in Athens, the first institution of higher learning in the Western world. Along with his mentor, Socrates, and his student, Aristotle, Plato helped to lay the...
(Statesman 271–2), the famous Roman poet Ovid
Ovid
Publius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
(Metamorphoses 1,89sqq.), and others. Ovid also praised the Pythagorean ideal of universal nonviolence (Metamorphoses 15,72sqq.).
Among the Platonists vegetarian and pro-animal thought was comparatively strong, while in other ancient schools of philosophy (Peripatetics, Stoics
Stoicism
Stoicism is a school of Hellenistic philosophy founded in Athens by Zeno of Citium in the early . The Stoics taught that destructive emotions resulted from errors in judgment, and that a sage, or person of "moral and intellectual perfection," would not suffer such emotions.Stoics were concerned...
, Epicureans
Epicureanism
Epicureanism is a system of philosophy based upon the teachings of Epicurus, founded around 307 BC. Epicurus was an atomic materialist, following in the steps of Democritus. His materialism led him to a general attack on superstition and divine intervention. Following Aristippus—about whom...
) it was virtually nonexistent. Almost all the Stoics were emphatically anti-vegetarian (with the prominent exception of Seneca
Seneca the Younger
Lucius Annaeus Seneca was a Roman Stoic philosopher, statesman, dramatist, and in one work humorist, of the Silver Age of Latin literature. He was tutor and later advisor to emperor Nero...
). They insisted on the absence of reason in brutes, leading them to conclude that there cannot be any ethical obligations or restraints in dealing with the world of irrational animals. As for the followers of the Cynic School, their extremely frugal way of life entailed a practically meatless diet, but they did not make vegetarianism their maxim.
In the Platonic Academy
Academy
An academy is an institution of higher learning, research, or honorary membership.The name traces back to Plato's school of philosophy, founded approximately 385 BC at Akademia, a sanctuary of Athena, the goddess of wisdom and skill, north of Athens, Greece. In the western world academia is the...
the scholarchs (school heads) Xenocrates
Xenocrates
Xenocrates of Chalcedon was a Greek philosopher, mathematician, and leader of the Platonic Academy from 339/8 to 314/3 BC. His teachings followed those of Plato, which he attempted to define more closely, often with mathematical elements...
and (probably) Polemon
Polemon (scholarch)
Polemon of Athens was an eminent Platonist philosopher and Plato's third successor as scholarch or head of the Academy from 314/313 to 270/269 BC...
pleaded for vegetarianism. In the Peripatetic school Theophrastus
Theophrastus
Theophrastus , a Greek native of Eresos in Lesbos, was the successor to Aristotle in the Peripatetic school. He came to Athens at a young age, and initially studied in Plato's school. After Plato's death he attached himself to Aristotle. Aristotle bequeathed to Theophrastus his writings, and...
, Aristotle’s immediate successor, supported it. Some of the prominent Platonists and Neo-Platonists
Neoplatonism
Neoplatonism , is the modern term for a school of religious and mystical philosophy that took shape in the 3rd century AD, based on the teachings of Plato and earlier Platonists, with its earliest contributor believed to be Plotinus, and his teacher Ammonius Saccas...
in the age of the Roman Empire lived on a vegetarian diet. These included Plutarch
Plutarch
Plutarch then named, on his becoming a Roman citizen, Lucius Mestrius Plutarchus , c. 46 – 120 AD, was a Greek historian, biographer, essayist, and Middle Platonist known primarily for his Parallel Lives and Moralia...
(who seems to have adopted vegetarianism only temporarily), Apollonius of Tyana
Apollonius of Tyana
Apollonius of Tyana was a Greek Neopythagorean philosopher from the town of Tyana in the Roman province of Cappadocia in Asia Minor. Little is certainly known about him...
, Plotinus
Plotinus
Plotinus was a major philosopher of the ancient world. In his system of theory there are the three principles: the One, the Intellect, and the Soul. His teacher was Ammonius Saccas and he is of the Platonic tradition...
, and Porphyry
Porphyry (philosopher)
Porphyry of Tyre , Porphyrios, AD 234–c. 305) was a Neoplatonic philosopher who was born in Tyre. He edited and published the Enneads, the only collection of the work of his teacher Plotinus. He also wrote many works himself on a wide variety of topics...
. Porphyry wrote a treatise On abstinence from beings with a soul, the most elaborate ancient pro-vegetarian text known to us.
Among the Manicheans
Manichaeism
Manichaeism in Modern Persian Āyin e Māni; ) was one of the major Iranian Gnostic religions, originating in Sassanid Persia.Although most of the original writings of the founding prophet Mani have been lost, numerous translations and fragmentary texts have survived...
, a major religious movement founded in the third century AD, there was an elite group called Electi (the chosen) who were Lacto-Vegetarians for ethical reasons and abode by a commandment which strictly banned killing. Common Manicheans called Auditores (Hearers) obeyed looser rules of nonviolence.
Jewish/Christian antiquity and Middle Ages
The ideal original diet of the Bible was vegetarian: "Then God said, "Look! I have given you every seed-bearing plant throughout the earth and all the fruit trees for your food." Genesis 1:29 "You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden" Genesis 2:16 "...you will eat of its {the earth's} grains." Genesis 3:18Christian scholars place the creation event somewhere around 4000 B.C. (but it could be even earlier depending on how the Hebrew words "son" & "father" are translated in the genealogies since they can also mean descendant or ancestor). This would make the Bible about the oldest source of vegetarianism in the world. Later at Noah's time and in Israel's time the Bible gave permission for meat eating, but made a clear distinction between clean meat and unclean/unhealthy meat in Genesis 6 and esp. Leviticus 11 (Dr. Macht demonstrated a 100% correlation in toxicity levels with the Bible's clean-unclean specifications in a series of experiments in an article entitled "An Experimental Pharmacological Appreciation of Leviticus XI and Deuteronomy XIV" in the Bulletin of the History of Medicine, published by Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine) . But, the vegetarian diet was the original ideal.
Christians who follow Biblical health principles (only a few, such as Adventists, do) that include vegetarianism even today live about 10 years longer than the average American according to research reported by the Blue Zones research foundation, National Geographic Magazine, the National Institute of Health and others. Some later cultures not based on the Bible also emphasize a plant based diet and experience significant benefits from vegetarianism.
Some of the early Christians in the apostolic era were concerned that eating meat sacrificed to idols might result in ritual pollution. The Apostle Paul emphatically rejected that view (Romans 14:2-21; compare 1 Corinthians 8:8-9, Colossians 2:20-22).
"Meat was often sacrificed on pagan altars and dedicated to pagan gods in Paul's day. Later this meat was offered for sale in the public meat markets. Some Christians wondered if it were morally right for Christians to eat such meat that had previously been sacrificed to pagan gods."
Many early Christians were vegetarian such as Clement of Alexandria, Origen, John Chrysostom, Basil the Great and others. Some early church writings suggest that Matthew, Peter & James were vegetarian. The historian Eusebius writes that the Apostle “Matthew partook of seeds, nuts and vegetables, without flesh.” Clement of Alexandria wrote, “It is far better to be happy than to have your bodies act as graveyards for animals.” Saint Porphyry wrote an entire book entitled On Abstinence from Animal Food which compiled most of the classical thought on the subject.
In late antiquity and in the Middle Ages many monks and hermits renounced meat-eating in the context of their asceticism. The most prominent of them was St Jerome
Jerome
Saint Jerome was a Roman Christian priest, confessor, theologian and historian, and who became a Doctor of the Church. He was the son of Eusebius, of the city of Stridon, which was on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia...
(† 419), whom they used to take as their model. The Rule of St Benedict
Rule of St Benedict
The Rule of Saint Benedict is a book of precepts written by St. Benedict of Nursia for monks living communally under the authority of an abbot. Since about the 7th century it has also been adopted by communities of women...
(6th century) allowed the Benedictine
Benedictine
Benedictine refers to the spirituality and consecrated life in accordance with the Rule of St Benedict, written by Benedict of Nursia in the sixth century for the cenobitic communities he founded in central Italy. The most notable of these is Monte Cassino, the first monastery founded by Benedict...
s to eat fish and fowl, but forbade the consumption of the meat of quadrupeds unless the religious was ill. Many other rules of religious orders contained similar restrictions of diet, some of which even included fowl, but fish was never prohibited, as Christ himself had eaten fish (Luke 24:42-43). The concern of those monks and nuns was frugality, voluntary privation, and self-mortification. William of Malmesbury writes that Bishop Wulfstan of Worcester (d. 1095) decided to adhere to a strict vegetarian diet simply because he found it difficult to resist the smell of roasted goose. Saint Genevieve
Genevieve
St Genevieve , in Latin Sancta Genovefa, from Germanic keno and wefa , is the patron saint of Paris in Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox tradition...
, the Patron Saint of Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, is mentioned as having observed a vegetarian diet - but as an act of physical austerity, rather than out of concern for animals. Medieval hermits, at least those portrayed in literature, may have been vegetarians for similar reasons, as suggested in a passage from Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur
Le Morte d'Arthur
Le Morte d'Arthur is a compilation by Sir Thomas Malory of Romance tales about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, and the Knights of the Round Table...
: 'Then departed Gawain and Ector as heavy (sad) as they might for their misadventure (mishap), and so rode till that they came to the rough mountain, and there they tied their horses and went on foot to the hermitage. And when they were (had) come up, they saw a poor house, and beside the chapel a little courtelage (courtyard), where Nacien the hermit gathered worts (vegetables), as he which had tasted none other meat (food) of a great while.'
There is no evidence for any ethically motivated vegetarianism in ancient and medieval Catholicism or in the Eastern Churches. There were instances of compassion to animals, but no explicit objection to the act of slaughter per se. The most influential theologians, St Augustine
Augustine of Hippo
Augustine of Hippo , also known as Augustine, St. Augustine, St. Austin, St. Augoustinos, Blessed Augustine, or St. Augustine the Blessed, was Bishop of Hippo Regius . He was a Latin-speaking philosopher and theologian who lived in the Roman Africa Province...
and St Thomas Aquinas, emphasized that man owes no duties to animals. Even for St Francis of Assisi
Francis of Assisi
Saint Francis of Assisi was an Italian Catholic friar and preacher. He founded the men's Franciscan Order, the women’s Order of St. Clare, and the lay Third Order of Saint Francis. St...
, who used to refer to the animal world in his mystic language, there is no hint in contemporary sources that he ever practised or advocated vegetarianism.
Many ancient heretics
Heresy
Heresy is a controversial or novel change to a system of beliefs, especially a religion, that conflicts with established dogma. It is distinct from apostasy, which is the formal denunciation of one's religion, principles or cause, and blasphemy, which is irreverence toward religion...
, such as the Encratites
Tatian
Tatian the Assyrian was an Assyrian early Christian writer and theologian of the 2nd century.Tatian's most influential work is the Diatessaron, a Biblical paraphrase, or "harmony", of the four gospels that became the standard text of the four gospels in the Syriac-speaking churches until the...
, the Ebionites
Ebionites
Ebionites, or Ebionaioi, , is a patristic term referring to a Jewish Christian sect or sects that existed during the first centuries of the Christian Era. They regarded Jesus as the Messiah and insisted on the necessity of following Jewish religious law and rites...
, and the Eustathians, considered abstention from meat-eating an essential part of their asceticism. Medieval heretics, such as the Bogomils and the Cathars, also despised the consumption of meat.
Early modern period
It was not before the RenaissanceRenaissance
The Renaissance was a cultural movement that spanned roughly the 14th to the 17th century, beginning in Italy in the Late Middle Ages and later spreading to the rest of Europe. The term is also used more loosely to refer to the historical era, but since the changes of the Renaissance were not...
that vegetarianism reemerged in Europe as a philosophical concept based on an ethical motivation. Among the first celebrities who supported it were Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo da Vinci
Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci was an Italian Renaissance polymath: painter, sculptor, architect, musician, scientist, mathematician, engineer, inventor, anatomist, geologist, cartographer, botanist and writer whose genius, perhaps more than that of any other figure, epitomized the Renaissance...
(1452–1519) and Pierre Gassendi
Pierre Gassendi
Pierre Gassendi was a French philosopher, priest, scientist, astronomer, and mathematician. With a church position in south-east France, he also spent much time in Paris, where he was a leader of a group of free-thinking intellectuals. He was also an active observational scientist, publishing the...
(1592–1655). In the 17th century the paramount theorist of the meatless or “Pythagorean” diet was the English writer Thomas Tryon
Thomas Tryon
Thomas Tryon was an English merchant, author of popular self-help books, and early advocate of vegetarianism.-Life:...
(1634–1703). On the other hand, influential philosophers such as René Descartes
René Descartes
René Descartes ; was a French philosopher and writer who spent most of his adult life in the Dutch Republic. He has been dubbed the 'Father of Modern Philosophy', and much subsequent Western philosophy is a response to his writings, which are studied closely to this day...
(1596–1650) and Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant
Immanuel Kant was a German philosopher from Königsberg , researching, lecturing and writing on philosophy and anthropology at the end of the 18th Century Enlightenment....
(1724–1804) were of the opinion that there cannot be any ethical duties whatsoever toward animals. By the end of the 18th century in England the claim that animals were made only for man's use (anthropocentrism
Anthropocentrism
Anthropocentrism describes the tendency for human beings to regard themselves as the central and most significant entities in the universe, or the assessment of reality through an exclusively human perspective....
) was still being advanced, but no longer carried general assent. Very soon, it would disappear altogether.
In America there were small groups of Christian vegetarians in the 18th century. The best known of them was Ephrata Cloister
Ephrata Cloister
The Ephrata Cloister or Ephrata Community was a religious community, established in 1732 by Johann Conrad Beissel at Ephrata, in what is now Lancaster County, Pennsylvania...
in Pennsylvania, a religious community founded by Conrad Beissel
Conrad Beissel
Johann Conrad Beissel was the German-born religious leader who in 1732 founded the Ephrata Community in Pennsylvania.-Background:...
in 1732. Benjamin Franklin
Benjamin Franklin
Dr. Benjamin Franklin was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, musician, inventor, satirist, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat...
became a vegetarian at the age of 16, but later on he reluctantly returned to meat eating.
19th century
Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was an elite cultural movement of intellectuals in 18th century Europe that sought to mobilize the power of reason in order to reform society and advance knowledge. It promoted intellectual interchange and opposed intolerance and abuses in church and state...
and in the early nineteenth century, England was the place where vegetarian ideas were more welcome than anywhere else in Europe, and the English vegetarians were particularly enthusiastic about the practical implementation of their principles. The most prominent advocate of an ethically motivated vegetarianism in the early 19th century was the poet Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley
Percy Bysshe Shelley was one of the major English Romantic poets and is critically regarded as among the finest lyric poets in the English language. Shelley was famous for his association with John Keats and Lord Byron...
(1792–1822). In 1847 the Vegetarian Society
Vegetarian Society
The Vegetarian Society is a British registered charity established on 30 September 1847 to "support, represent and increase the number of vegetarians in the UK."-History:...
was founded by the 140 participants of a conference at Ramsgate
Ramsgate
Ramsgate is a seaside town in the district of Thanet in east Kent, England. It was one of the great English seaside towns of the 19th century and is a member of the ancient confederation of Cinque Ports. It has a population of around 40,000. Ramsgate's main attraction is its coastline and its main...
. In 1853 the Society already had 889 members. English vegetarians were a small but highly motivated and active group. Many of them believed in simple life and "pure" food, humanitarian ideals and strict moral principles.
In the United States, Reverend William Metcalfe (1788–1862), a pacifist and a prominent member of the Bible-Christian Church, preached vegetarianism. He and Sylvester Graham
Sylvester Graham
The Reverend Sylvester Graham was an American dietary reformer. He was born in Suffield, Connecticut as the 17th child of Reverend John Graham. Sylvester Graham was ordained in 1826 as a Presbyterian minister. He entered Amherst College in 1823 but did not graduate...
, the mentor of the Grahamites and inventor of the Graham crackers, were among the founders of the American Vegetarian Society in 1850. Ellen G. White
Ellen G. White
Ellen Gould White was a prolific author and an American Christian pioneer. She, along with other Sabbatarian Adventist leaders, such as Joseph Bates and her husband James White, would form what is now known as the Seventh-day Adventist Church.Ellen White reported to her fellow believers her...
, one of the founders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church
Seventh-day Adventist Church
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Protestant Christian denomination distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the original seventh day of the Judeo-Christian week, as the Sabbath, and by its emphasis on the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ...
, became an advocate of vegetarianism, and the Church has recommended a meatless diet ever since.
In Russia Leo Tolstoy
Leo Tolstoy
Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy was a Russian writer who primarily wrote novels and short stories. Later in life, he also wrote plays and essays. His two most famous works, the novels War and Peace and Anna Karenina, are acknowledged as two of the greatest novels of all time and a pinnacle of realist...
(1828–1910) was the most outstanding supporter of vegetarianism.
In Germany the well-known politician, publicist and revolutionist Gustav Struve
Gustav Struve
Gustav Struve, known as Gustav von Struve until he gave up his title, , was a German politician, lawyer and publicist, and a revolutionary during the German revolution of 1848-1849 in Baden...
(1805–1870) was a leading figure in the initial stage of the vegetarian movement. He was inspired by Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was a Genevan philosopher, writer, and composer of 18th-century Romanticism. His political philosophy influenced the French Revolution as well as the overall development of modern political, sociological and educational thought.His novel Émile: or, On Education is a treatise...
’s treatise Émile
Emile: Or, On Education
Émile, or On Education is a treatise on the nature of education and on the nature of man written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who considered it to be the “best and most important of all my writings”. Due to a section of the book entitled “Profession of Faith of the Savoyard Vicar,” Émile was be...
. Many vegetarian associations were founded in the last third of the century and the Order of the Golden Age went on to achieve particular prominence beyond the Food Reform movement.
Vegetarianism was frequently associated with cultural reform movements, such as temperance
Temperance movement
A temperance movement is a social movement urging reduced use of alcoholic beverages. Temperance movements may criticize excessive alcohol use, promote complete abstinence , or pressure the government to enact anti-alcohol legislation or complete prohibition of alcohol.-Temperance movement by...
and anti-vivisection
Vivisection
Vivisection is defined as surgery conducted for experimental purposes on a living organism, typically animals with a central nervous system, to view living internal structure...
. It was propagated as an essential part of "the natural way of life." Some of its champions sharply criticized the civilization of their age and strove to improve public health.
20th century
The International Vegetarian UnionInternational Vegetarian Union
The International Vegetarian Union is an international non profit organization whose purpose is to promote vegetarianism. IVU was founded in 1908 in Dresden, Germany....
, a union of the national societies, was founded in 1908. In the Western world
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
, the popularity of vegetarianism grew during the 20th century as a result of nutritional, ethical, and more recently, environmental
Environmental movement
The environmental movement, a term that includes the conservation and green politics, is a diverse scientific, social, and political movement for addressing environmental issues....
and economic concerns. Henry Stephens Salt
Henry Stephens Salt
Henry Stephens Salt was an English writer and campaigner for social reform in the fields of prisons, schools, economic institutions, and the treatment of animals. He was a noted ethical vegetarian, anti-vivisectionist, socialist, and pacifist, and was well known as a literary critic, biographer,...
and George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw
George Bernard Shaw was an Irish playwright and a co-founder of the London School of Economics. Although his first profitable writing was music and literary criticism, in which capacity he wrote many highly articulate pieces of journalism, his main talent was for drama, and he wrote more than 60...
were famous vegetarian activists.
The Indian concept of nonviolence had a growing impact in the Western world. The model of Mahatma Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi , pronounced . 2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and ideological leader of India during the Indian independence movement...
, a strong and uncompromising advocate of nonviolence toward animals, contributed to the popularization of vegetarianism in Western countries. The study of Far-Eastern religious and philosophical concepts of nonviolence was also instrumental in the shaping of Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer
Albert Schweitzer OM was a German theologian, organist, philosopher, physician, and medical missionary. He was born in Kaysersberg in the province of Alsace-Lorraine, at that time part of the German Empire...
’s principle of “reverence for life”, which is still today a common argument in discussions on ethical aspects of diet. But Schweitzer himself started to practise vegetarianism only shortly before his death.
Current situation
Today Indian vegetarians, primarily lacto-vegetariansLacto vegetarianism
A lacto vegetarian diet is a vegetarian diet that includes dairy products such as milk, cheese, yogurt, butter, cream, and kefir, but excludes eggs. Lacto-vegetarians also abstain from cheeses that include animal rennet and yogurts that contain gelatin...
, are estimated to make up more than 70 percent of the world's vegetarians. They make up 20–42 percent of the population in India, while less than 30 percent are regular meat-eaters.
Surveys in the U.S. have found that roughly 1–2.8 percent of adults eat no meat, poultry, or fish.
See also
- VegetarianismVegetarianismVegetarianism encompasses the practice of following plant-based diets , with or without the inclusion of dairy products or eggs, and with the exclusion of meat...
- Vegetarianism and religionVegetarianism and religionVegetarianism and religion are strongly linked in a number of religions that originated in ancient India . In Jainism, vegetarianism is mandatory for everyone; in Hinduism and Mahayana Buddhism, it is advocated by some influential scriptures and religious authorities...
- VeganismVeganismVeganism is the practice of eliminating the use of animal products. Ethical vegans reject the commodity status of animals and the use of animal products for any purpose, while dietary vegans or strict vegetarians eliminate them from their diet only...
- Plant-based dietPlant-based dietPlant-based diet may refer to:* Herbivore: an animal that is adapted to eat plants and not meat.* Veganism: refers to a plant-based diet, with absolutely no food from animal sources ; or completely eliminating the use of animal products for ethical reasons...
- Bambi effectBambi Effect"The Bambi effect" is a term used anecdotally or in editorial media that refers to objections against the killing of animals that are perceived as "cute" or "adorable", such as deer or dolphins, while there may be little or no objection to the suffering of organisms that are perceived as somehow...
Sources
- Fleming, R. "The New Wealth, the New Rich and the New Political Style in Late Anglo-Saxon England (The Allen Brown Memorial Lecture)." Anglo-Norman Studies 23 (2001). 1-22.
- William of Malmesbury, Vita S. Dunstani, ed. M. Winterbottom and R.M. Thomson, William of Malmesbury, Saints’ Lives. Lives of SS. Wulfstan, Dunstan, Patrick, Benignus and Indract. Oxford, 2002.
Further reading
- Spencer, Colin 1993 The Heretics Feast, A History of Vegetarianism. Fourth Estate, London. ISBN 1-85702-250-5
- Stuart, TristramTristram StuartTristram Stuart is an English author and historian.Stuart read English at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, graduating in 1999 and winning the Betha Wolferstan Rylands prize and the Graham Storey prize; his directors of studies were Peter Holland and John Lennard...
2007 The Bloodless Revolution: A Cultural History of Vegetarianism From 1600 to Modern TimesThe Bloodless Revolution: A Cultural History of Vegetarianism From 1600 to Modern TimesThe Bloodless Revolution: A Cultural History of Vegetarianism From 1600 to Modern Times is a history of the vegetarian movement in Western/Eastern society system by Tristram Stuart.From the book's Introduction:From the book jacket:...
. Norton, New York. ISBN 0-393-05220-6 - Gregory, James 2007 Of Victorians and Vegetarians. The Vegetarian Movement in Nineteenth-century Britain. London. ISBN 978-1-84511-379-7
- O'Connell, Anne 2008 Early Vegetarian Recipes, Prospect Books, Devon. ISBN 978-1-903018-58-3