On the origins of British vegetarianism

[Second Summer]

The Beefsteak chapel hardly sounds like a place where vegetarians would be welcome, but more than 200 years ago, this tiny chapel in Salford was the British birthplace of the meat-free diet.

In an even greater twist, the cleric who preached the moral virtues of vegetarianism was the Reverend William Cowherd. His Beefsteak Chapel was the country's first vegetarian church.

Cowherd, born almost 250 years ago on Sunday 16 December, demanded his congregation eat a meat free diet.

Read more: Vegetarian roots: The extraordinary tale of William Cowherd (BBC)

The article gives two reasons for Cowherd's support for vegetarianism: 1) God inhabits every animal, and so it would be a sin to eat them. 2) Eating meat would make you behave aggressively, so again eating meat is sinful. How do you feel these reasons resonate with vegetarians of today?

 

[ledboots]

Interesting article! I never knew there was so much vegetarianism going on in England back then!

I always think it is interesting that most vegans I know are atheists. Since a lot of them aren't even thrilled with the health vegans, I don't think *preachy* Christian veg*ns would be too popular.

Buddha said, "Having abandoned the taking of life, refraining from the taking of life, one dwells without violence, with the knife laid down, scrupulous, full of mercy, trembling with compassion for all sentient beings."

 

[AeryFairy]

I know about a lot of this - it's why there's so much awesome veg*n stuff in Manchester the 1847 bistro (best food EVER) is named after the origin of the vegetarian society up here

 

[PTree15]

Very cool read. Thanks for that. I kind of agree with what ledboots said regarding today's veg*ns.

 

[Joe]

Read more: Vegetarian roots: The extraordinary tale of William Cowherd (BBC)

Why was the URL for the article removed? And who removed it?

Just curious.

 

[Second Summer]

Why was the URL for the article removed? And who removed it?

Just curious.

Problem with an upgraded add-on. I've temporarily disabled the add-on while I investigate, so the links should be working again now I hope ...

 

[Second Summer]

I just found a book review for a very old vegetarian cooking book, Vegetarian Cookery (1867). It talks about Rev. Jas. Simpson who was a member of the Bible Christian Church, the church founded by Rev. William Cowherd that we read about in the BBC article in the first post of this thread.

The history cook: vegetarian cookery (Financial Times)

The recipes apparently don't excite the reviewer very much, although the 40-page introduction gets a better reception. I suppose it's not a big surprise that British vegetarian recipes from 1867, presumably aimed at less well off, are not so appealing to today's audience. Today we have a much wider selection of ingredients, and also 150 years of additional progress in vegetarian cooking.