-
The Renaissance was a time of rediscovery,
rebirth, and renewed interest in classical
-
Greek philosophy. Viewed as the bridge
between the Middle Ages and modern times,
-
the Renaissance spurred innovation
and revolution within the fields of art,
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architecture, politics, science,
astronomy, literature, and more.
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With the invention of moveable type,
ideas spread faster than ever before,
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and there began a general shift
away from the religion-centric thought
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of the Middle Ages towards
an individual-centric humanistic thought,
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valuing logic and reason at its core.
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With all of this paradigm-shifting
afoot, one must wonder: “Where were the
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vegans?” Okay, maybe one mustn’t wonder
that necessarily…but today we’re going to!
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Hi, it’s Emily from Bite Size Vegan and
welcome to another vegan nugget.
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In “The History of Veganism, Part One”
we covered veganism in ancient times,
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and in “Part Two” we tackled
the Middle Ages.
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If you missed them, both of those
installments are linked in the sidebar
-
and in the description below.
-
In “Part Three” we’ll be delving
into the time of the Renaissance.
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Now, as always,
I need to start with a few caveats.
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First, the actual start and end dates
of the Renaissance,
-
like all time periods, are still debated.
For the sake of this video,
-
we’ll be focusing on around 1500 to 1700
CE, as “Part Four” will cover the Age
-
of Enlightenment.
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Second, as with “The Middle Ages,” “The
Renaissance” applies
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almost exclusively to Europe,
with the term “The Early Modern Period"
-
more appropriately capturing
the time period on a global scale.
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I’ve chosen the title:
“The Renaissance” for ease or recognition.
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Third, due to the nature
of the information I was able to find,
-
and as always, historical bias,
this is a rather Euro-centric video.
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Though there were most undoubtedly
worthy developments within other parts
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of the world, as we’ve already seen
in the first two parts.
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But there is some good news!
While still profoundly
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male-centric as well,
we do finally get documentation
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of an influential woman,
with many more to come
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as historians slowly begin to actually
take their most assuredly long-present
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contributions into account.
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Fourth, as we’re now getting closer
to modern times,
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and as I said in the introduction,
the 15th century saw
-
the invention of moveable type,
the amount of recorded information
-
increases dramatically from here on out.
-
Thus, the disclaimer I’ve given
in each history installment is
-
ever more valid with each video;
I will most certainly leave out
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key individuals and occurrences
(as all historical accounts are bound to).
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Again, this is not intentional,
but a sad fact of my human limitations
-
in attempting to research, write, edit
and publish what amounts
-
to a ten-page academic research paper,
and produce several full-length
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YouTube television episodes
all within 2-4 days, every week.
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♪ Sad violin playing ♪
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In order to create as comprehensive
of an historical video series
-
and I can and to account for valuable
information that, for sake of time,
-
cannot fit within
the core overarching timeline,
-
moving forward I will be producing
“History of Veganism Spotlight” videos
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on specific movements,
cultures and individuals.
-
Some examples will be a feminist history
of veganism, veganism in war times,
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a deeper look into the traditional diet
of Native Americans prior to colonization,
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“The History of Vivisection,” and more.
All of these will be housed
-
in "The History of Veganism Playlist.”
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Fifth, and in a similar vein,
if I or anyone finds errors in this video
-
(or any of my videos in fact)
I will keep a log on the blog post,
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which is also where you can go to find all
of my sources for everything I state today
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as well as both full-length
and additional quotes.
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And finally, sixth, as the term “vegan”
wasn’t coined until 1944,
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historically the word “vegetarian”
most often meant what we now call “vegan.”
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With all of that out of the way
--I thought it would never end
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onwards to:
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“The History of Veganism!”
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[Part Three]
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The Renaissance saw a shift
towards valuing the individual
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and questioning religious beliefs
and practices.
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Thus, in this video we will be focusing
on selected writings and beliefs
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of individual historical figures,
rather than overarching religions,
-
philosophies or cultures.
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Some historians assert that there was
no development of veganism,
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at least from an ethical standpoint,
between Porphyry of 3rd century CE
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who we covered in Part One,
and the turn of the 18th century,
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leaving the Middle Ages
and the Renaissance in a black hole
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of un-veganness.
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However, as we saw in “Part Two,”
individuals like the Medieval blind
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Arab philosopher, poet, writer
and all around vegan-truth-bomb-dropper
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of the Islamic Golden age,
Abul ʿAla Al-Maʿarri,
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were passionately vocal
about the rights of animals.
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While the humanism of the Renaissance and
rebirth of scientific inquiry
-
led to assertions of human superiority
and a resurgence
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and proliferation
of barbaric vivisection practices,
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it also saw a growing counter movement
that viewed animals as intelligent,
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sentient, and worthy
of compassion and respect.
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As Professor Rod Preece states
in his text, Sins of the Flesh,
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in reference to humanistic individuality:
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“To recognize individual humans
as ends in themselves is a prerequisite
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to recognizing individual animals as ends
in themselves. It is only when we can look
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to ourselves and say ‘I’ that we can look
to animals and acknowledge their right to
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be perceived, if not necessarily conceive
of themselves, as an ‘I’ too.”
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While many, if not most of
the individuals we will cover today,
-
either weren’t themselves fully
vegan/vegetarian or there’s
-
not sufficient documentation
to know one way or another,
-
each has contributed,
through their writings, to the development
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of vegan principles and ideals.
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Let’s start with the quintessential
Renaissance man: Leonardo da Vinci,
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who Professor Rod Preece posits was
“the first of the modern
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ethical vegetarians, basing his thoughts
solely in the ethical realm”
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and “the first since Porphyry
to fuse animal ethics
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and principled vegetarianism.”
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And again Abul ʿAla Al-Maʿarri
gets the short end of the stick.
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Best known for his achievement
in the art world, da Vinci
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made significant contributions to
architecture, botany, engineering,
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mathematics, music, history,
cartography, geology, invention,
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and more--including animal rights
and ethical vegetarianism,
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though not as frequently
listed in historical accounts.
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While da Vinci himself never seems to have
stated explicitly that he was vegetarian,
-
those who knew him and wrote about him
described da Vinci as both caring for
-
and not consuming animals.
-
Da Vinci did, however, write very
powerfully against the entitled nature
-
of humans in their treatment of animals
for their own gain:
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"King of the animals–– as thou hast
described him–– I should rather say
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king of the beasts, thou being
the greatest––because thou doest only
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help them, in order that they give thee
their children for the benefit
-
of the gullet,
of which thou hast attempted to
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make a sepulcher [grave/tomb] for all
animals; and I would say still more,
-
if I were allowed
to speak the entire truth.”
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And in a similar vein, “Man has great
power of speech, but the greater part
-
thereof is empty and deceitful.
The animals have little,
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but that little is useful and true;
and better is a small and certain thing
-
than a great falsehood.”
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Da Vinci asks those insistent
on eating animals,
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“Does not nature produce enough simple
[meaning: vegetarian] food
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for thee to satisfy thyself?”
This is a question we will see echoed many
-
times by other veg-inclined thinkers
of this time.
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In a rather unique display of overarching
vegan ethics for this time period,
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da Vinci speaks to issues beyond diet:
naming leather for the animal skin that it is;
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denouncing the destruction of bees for
beeswax and theft of their food
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for honey; decrying the loss
of generations of fish;
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defending animals abused for labor
and eventually slaughtered;
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highlighting the thievery and “barbaric”
slaughter of “countless numbers” of “their
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little children”; and even addressing the
perversity of using a knife with a ram’s
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horn handle to slaughter more
of their own kind.
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As a note,
if you’re visually impaired,
-
this particular da Vinci quote
I’m referring onscreen is on the blog post
-
for text-to-speech or screen-readers.
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Demonstrating once again that
the arguments against veganism
-
haven’t changed over the centuries
is an excerpt from da Vinci
-
explaining why it is that plants
do not feel as animals do.
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Yes, we have perhaps one of the greatest
minds of human history reduced to refuting
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the poignant counterpoint, “Plants, tho.”
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As a quick aside, there is a quote
frequently circulated amongst vegan
-
and vegetarians that
is falsely attributed to da Vinci,
-
namely,
“I have from an early age abjured the use
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of meat, and the time will come when men
such as I will look upon
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the murder of animals as they now look
upon the murder of men.”
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This was accidentally misattributed to him
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in anthology and actually comes
from a fictional portrayal of da Vinci.
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I’ll close our coverage of da Vinci with
an account from Giorgio Vasari in 1550,
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which speaks to da Vinci’s compassion
and perhaps even establishes him
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as a liberator of animals.
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“In all the other animals… he managed
with the greatest love and patience;
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and this he showed when often passing
by the places where birds were sold, for,
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taking them with his own hand out of their cages
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and having paid for them what was asked,
he let them fly away into the air,
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restoring them to their lost liberty.”
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Many vegetarians of the Renaissance were,
like those of the Middle Ages,
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ascetically-motivated.
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However, unlike their Medieval
predecessors, Renaissance ascetics were,
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by and large, more individualized
and secular in their pursuits,
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with health and longevity, rather than religious purification, being major motivators.
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Among them existed several
medical doctors interested
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in reforming the practice of medicine
by aiding the body in healing itself
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through proper diet and lifestyle choices.
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Perhaps the first of the modern rational
and secular ascetic vegetarians
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was Venitian Luigi Cornaro (1465-1566)
whose writing,
-
A Treatise on a Sober Life influenced
a great number of individuals
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including Leonardi Lessio (1554-1623)
and Dr. Thomas Moffet.
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Moffet for one was not purely motivated by
health alone, asking in his text Health’s
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Improvement, “Can civil and human eyes yet
abide the slaughter
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of an innocent ‘beast,’ the cutting of
his throat, the smashing him on the head,
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the flaying off his skin, the quartering
and dismembering of his joints,
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the sprinkling of his blood,
the ripping up of his veins,
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the enduring of ill savours,
the heaving of heavy sighs, sobs,
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and groans, the passionate struggling
and panting for life,
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which only hard-hearted butchers
can endure to see?”
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and echoes da Vinci’s query,
"Is not the earth sufficient to give
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us meat, but that we must also rend up
the bowels of beasts, birds, and fishes?"
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It’s important to note how Moffet,
and indeed others of his time,
-
began employing the term “meat”
to apply to more than animal flesh,
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perhaps to indicate the substantial nature
of plant foods.
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He also employs quotations
around the term “beast,” which Rod Preece
-
asserts, “indicates both that the term was
becoming primarily one of abuse
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and that some were less than satisfied
by the prejudicial usage.”
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Thus “linguistic forms as well as animal
ethics were changing” and “it was becoming
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less acceptable to malign the animals
by seemingly pejorative expressions.”
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Other ascetic-minded meat-decriers
included: Philip Stubbes,
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who in his text Anatomy of Abuses
compared the multitude of maladies
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befallen those who consumed flesh
to the health of those who did not;
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Roger Crab, whose vegetarianism
was grounded in Christianity;
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and Dr. George Cheyne,
one of the most esteemed
-
of English physicians,
and one of the first medical authorities
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in this country who expressly wrote
in advocacy of the reformed diet.
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Cheyne himself battled with obesity
and ill health,
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which he overcame
by eliminating meat from his diet.
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Even though his primary motivation
was health,
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Cheyne’s writing belied
elements of an ethical bent as well,
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“At what time animal food came first
in use is not certainly known.
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He was a bold man who made the first
experiment. To see the convulsions,
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agonies and tortures
of a poor fellow-creature,
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whom they cannot restore
nor recompense,
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dying to gratify luxury
and tickle callous and rank organs,
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must require a rocky heart, and a great
degree of cruelty and ferocity.
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I cannot find any great difference
between feeding on human flesh
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and feeding on [other] animal flesh,
except custom and practice.”
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Strangely enough, within this vein
of pursuing health through diet
-
was none other than
Sir Francis Bacon.
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--YouTube “bacon” commenters,
this is your moment of glory.--
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While not consistently practicing
vegetarianism himself,
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Bacon commended such a way of eating
and was interested in finding
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the ideal diet based on empirical fact
rather than religious dietary taboos.
-
While some of his writings so hint towards
an ethical bent, such as:
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“Nature has endowed man with a noble
and excellent principle of compassion,
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which extends itself also
to the dumb animals…
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And it is certain that the noblest souls
are the most extensively compassionate,”
-
he was also a firm supporter of vivisection.
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Bacon’s follower, Thomas Bushell,
took Bacon’s vegetarian support
-
into full practice, driven by the desire
for redemptive purification.
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Bushell, like Bacon, had to be cautious
with his vegetable fervor;
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in Protestant England, asceticism was still
seen as a vestige of Catholicism.
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While Bushell was motivated by
a religious drive to reverse
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the acts of Adam by returning to the vegan
diet of man before the fall,
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a belief summarized by Sir John Pettus’
assertion that
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“We multiply Adam’s transgression by
our continued eating of other creatures,
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which were not then allowed to us,”
his efforts were also
-
“endorsed by scientific rigour.”
He was putting himself forth
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as the “perfect experiment” of Bacon’s
belief that a vegetarian diet
-
would extend one’s lifespan.
Bushell lived to age 80 at a time
-
when the life expectancy at birth
was 35 years old.
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Now, as I mentioned, the information
available for this time period
-
is very Euro-centric,
but let’s take a moment to venture over to
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North America where the European colonization
of the continent was well underway.
-
This is an area I’ll be exploring
more thoroughly in a dedicated video,
-
but I wanted to at least
touch on it here.
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In her article “Native Americans
and Vegetarianism,” Dr. Rita Laws,
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herself a member of the Choctaw Nation,
explains that the stereotype
-
of the horse-mounted Indian hunter
dressed head to toe in animal skins,
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adorned with feathers and housed
in an animal skin teepee,
-
did not fit the majority of Native Americans,
save perhaps the Apache tribe,
-
prior to European colonization.
-
Laws writes, “Among my own people…
vegetables are the traditional diet mainstay.
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The homes were constructed not of skins,
but of wood, mud, bark and cane.
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The ancient Choctaws were,
first and foremost, farmers.
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Even the clothing was plant based.”
-
Laws pinpoints the change
in practices to the appearance
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of Francisco Vázquez de Coronado y Luján,
-
--I did my best--
-
better known as Coronado,
a Spanish explorer
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who led an expedition from Mexico
to what is today Kansas
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from 1540 to 1542, bringing with him
an ample amount of horses,
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some of whom broke free and multiplied,
later to be utilized by the Plain Indians.
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In combination with the later introduction
of guns, the Age of Buffalo began
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as plain Indians learned to hunt faster
and more efficiently.
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As an aside and perhaps preview to
the dedicated Native American History video,
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Dr. Margaret Robinson, a vegan Mi’kmaq
scholar and bisexual activist
-
based in Toronto who’s written
on the creation of Aboriginal veganism,
-
speaks to the problematic manner
in which non-native people
-
use the history of Native tribes
as justification
-
for their own consumption of animals.
-
Robinson emphasizes that native culture
is ever-evolving, despite the tendency of
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the dominant white discourse
to want to freeze it in time.
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Of course, not all Europeans
were in support of hunting.
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In fact, anti-hunting literature
was common during the Renaissance.
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Dutch humanist, Catholic priest,
social critic, teacher, and theologian
-
Desiderius Erasmus produced perhaps
the most amusingly poignant quote of all time
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made all the better considering
he was a priest.
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Speaking of “those who prefer before
everything else the chase of wild beasts
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[and who] say they get indescribable delight
from the blast of hunting horns
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and the howling of hound”
Erasmus says, “I expect such people think
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even dog turds smell of cinnamon.”
-
[moment of appreciation]
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Let’s continue.
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“But what pleasure is there in slaughtering
animals in whatever numbers?...
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And so when they have finished
dissecting and devouring the dead beast,
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what have they accomplished except
to degrade themselves into beasts
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while imagining
they are living the life of kings.”
-
In his work entitled “The Boar,”
poet George Granville speaks
-
from the perspective of a wild boar
about to be killed,
-
who is pointing to
the human hunter’s hypocrisy, stating:
-
“You murder us in sport, then dish us up
For drunken feasts, a relish for the cup.
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We lengthen not our meals:
but you much feast;
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Gorge till your bellies burst
- pray, who's the beast?
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With your humanity you keep a fuss,
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But are in truth
worse brutes than all of us.”
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This ability to empathize
with non-human animals was displayed
-
in many Renaissance writings
and was a welcome contrast to the view
-
of animals as machines championed
by René Descartes.
-
Though Descartes never explicitly
stated that animals couldn’t feel pain,
-
his description of them and their reactions
as “machine-like” provided scientists
-
a way to justify their gruesome
animal experiments.
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Given that anesthesia was not available,
all tests were carried out
-
on living, fully conscious animals.
And before you react in disgusted
-
disbelief, this barbarism is still practiced
today in animal testing labs around the world.
-
More on that here.
-
William Harvey was the first doctor
since 2nd century Greek physician Galen
-
to begin a research program based
on live animal experimentation.
-
Through cutting open conscious rabbits
and tying off their hearts before slicing
-
through their aorta, Harvey deduced
that the blood circulated through the body.
-
Well done.
-
Flemish anatomist Vesalius,
believed by some to be the founder
-
of modern anatomy, established vivisection
as part of school curricula
-
and was able to disprove many of Galen’s
concepts by using both
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live animal experimentation
and dissecting the corpses of criminals
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or those he acquired via grave-robbing.
-
Against such horrors as
the live evisceration of animals,
-
the thoughtful and empathetic writings
of other Renaissance thinkers
-
are quite welcome.
-
Shakespeare himself expressed compassion
for hunted animals, trapped birds,
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overworked horses, and even beetles,
flies and snails in various works.
-
For example, in “Measure for Measure,”
he afforded equal validity to a beetle's
-
experience of pain, stating,
“the poor beetle what
-
we tread upon, In corporal sufferance finds
a pang as great, As when a giant dies.”
-
Renaissance thinkers touched on a wide array
of issues pertinent to the development of
-
veganism, including, as we’ve already seen,
the hypocrisy and utter presumptiveness of
-
man, the value inherent in non-human animals,
the fact that humans are not designed to hunt
-
and consume animals, and the abundance of
plant foods for the taking.
-
Every argument against veganism that exists
today has apparently existed since the genesis
-
of veganism. We’ve already seen the advent
of the “Lions, tho” argument over 1,000
-
years ago, fielded by Abul ʿAla Al-Maʿarri,
and of course the “Plant, tho” taken on
-
by da Vinci. So I thought we’d round off
the latter portion of this video by hearing
-
some select Renaissance quotes that speak
to common objections as well as open up new
-
ways of thinking about non-human animals.
-
Philosopher Michel Eyquem de Montaigne (1533-1592)
wrote, “For my part I have never been able
-
to see, without displeasure, an innocent and
defenseless animal, from whom we receive no
-
offense or harm, pursued and slaughtered.”
He cautioned parents who would think that
-
their child displaying violence towards animals
was a sign of strength, stating that in fact
-
such actions were, “the true deeds or roots
of cruelty, of tyranny, and of treason. In
-
youth they bud, and afterwards grow to strength,
and come to perfection by means of custom.”
-
Montaigne poignantly decried humanity’s
pomposity, writing: “Presumption is our
-
natural and original disease. The most calamitous
and fragile of all creatures is man, and yet
-
the most arrogant. It is through the vanity
of this same imagination that he equals himself
-
to a god, that he attributes to himself divine
conditions, that he picks himself out and
-
separates himself from the crowd of other
creatures, curtails the just shares of other
-
animals his brethren and companions, and assigns
to them only such portions of faculties and
-
forces as seems to him good. How does he know,
by the effort of his intelligence, the interior
-
and secret movements and impulses of other
animals? By what comparison between them and
-
us does he infer the stupidity which he attributes
to them?”
-
The latter portions of this quote displays
a very important development in Renaissance
-
thought: that of the unique experience and
independent lives of non-human animals and
-
the revolutionary concept that their worth
cannot be accurately judged by human standards.
-
We will see this echoed by others as we move
forwards.
-
Poet Francis Quarles (1592-1644) wrote succinctly
of the body count left by man’s appetite.
-
“The birds of the air die to sustain thee;
The beasts of the field die to nourish thee;
-
The fishes of the sea die to feed thee;
Our stomachs are their common sepulcher,
-
Good God! With how many deaths are our poor
lives patched up?
-
How full of death is the life of momentary
man!”
-
Around the same time as Quarles, French physicist
and philosopher Pierre Gassendi (1592-1655)
-
expertly responded to the argument that eating
animals is natural because “everyone does
-
it,” by pointing out that “Indeed, is
it that man is sustained on flesh. But how
-
many things, let me ask, does man do every
day which are contrary to, or beside, his
-
nature?”
-
He further speaks to how unnatural it is for
humans to kill other animals. “Man lives
-
very well upon flesh, you say, but, if he
thinks this food to be natural to him, why
-
does he not use it as it is, as furnished
to him by Nature? But, in fact, he shrinks
-
in horror from seizing and rending living
or even raw flesh with his teeth, and lights
-
a fire to change its natural and proper condition
… If you answer, ‘that may be said to
-
be an industry ordered by Nature, by which
such weapons are invented,’ then, behold,
-
it is by the very same artificial instrument
that men make weapons for mutual slaughter.
-
Do they this at the instigation of Nature?
Can a use so noxious be called natural? Faculty
-
is given by Nature, but it is our own fault
that we make a perverse use of it.”
-
In answer to the obligatory, “Well what
CAN you eat?” argument comes the veritable
-
verbal vegan food porn of English writer John
Evelyn (1620-1706), who speaks with great
-
gusto of: “The infinitely wise and glorious
author of nature, who has given to plants
-
such astonishing properties; such fiery heat
in some to warm and cherish, such coolness
-
in others to temper and refresh, such pinguid
juice to nourish and feed the body, such quickening
-
acids to compel the appetite, and grateful
vehicles to court the obedience of the palate,
-
such vigour to renew and support our natural
strength, such ravishing flavour and perfumes
-
to recreate and delight us; in short, such
spirituous and active force to animate and
-
revive every faculty and part, to all the
kinds of human, and, I had almost said heavenly
-
capacity.”
-
Got me all hot and bothered. That was like
the 17th century’s version of a vegan Instagram
-
account showcasing all the tasty vegan treats.
-
Evelyn goes far beyond laying out this literary
buffet, positing that eating animals had lead
-
to more bloodshed between Christians than
any other cause, as violence against other
-
species inevitably translates to violence
against one’s own.
-
And now, finally, we come to Margaret Cavendish
(1624-1674), The Duchess of Newcastle, who
-
wrote plays, poetry, and essays on science,
philosophy and nature, and was one of first
-
female authors to be printed, AND just so
happens to be the first woman ever mentioned
-
in the “History of Veganism” series! It’s
about time! Nothing like male historical bias
-
to turn even a vegan history series into a
sausage fest.
-
So let’s hear what the Duchess had to say.
Cavendish spoke against the concept of inherent
-
human superiority pointing to the wisdom within
non-human animals and arguing that it was
-
man’s “pride, self conceit and presumption”
that has misled him into judging other creatures
-
by human standards, not realizing that language
and reason could take non-human form.
-
“For what man knows whether fish do not
know more of the nature of water, and ebbing
-
and flowing and the saltness of the sea? Or
whether birds do not know more of the nature
-
and degrees of air, or the causes of tempests?
Or whether worms do not know more of the nature
-
of the earth and how plants are produced?
Or bees of the several sorts of juices and
-
flowers than men?…Man may have one way of
knowledge…and creatures another way, and
-
yet other creatures’ manner or way may be
[as] intelligible and instructive to each
-
other as Man’s.”
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And, on the unearned entitlement of humans,
“Yet man doth think himself so gentle, mild
-
When he of creatures is most cruel wild.
And is so proud, thinks only he shall live,
-
That God a god-like nature did him give.
And that all creatures for his sake alone,
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Was made for him to tyrannize upon.”
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French Bishop and Theologian Jacques-Bénigne
Bossuet (1627-1704) harkened back to the days
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before the Biblical fall of man to again highlight
how much humans must disguise animal products
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in order to consume them. “The nourishment
which without violence men derived from the
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fruits which fell from the trees of themselves,
and from the herbs which also ripened with
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equal ease, was, without doubt, some relic
of the first innocence and of the gentleness
-
for which we were formed. Now to get food
we have to shed blood in spite of the horror
-
which it naturally inspires in us; and all
the refinements of which we avail ourselves,
-
in covering our tables, hardly suffices to
disguise for us the bloody corpses which we
-
have to devour to support life.”
-
He, like Evelyn, warns of the transference
of violence against non-human animals to violence
-
against fellow humans, stating that: “Life,
already shortened, is still further abridged
-
by the savage violences which are introduced
into the life of the human species. Man, whom
-
in the first ages we have seen spare the life
of other animals, is accustomed henceforward
-
to spare the life not even of his fellow-men.
It is in vain that God forbade, immediately
-
after the Deluge, the shedding of human blood;
in vain, in order to save some vestiges of
-
the mildness of our nature, while permitting
the feeding on flesh did he prohibit consumption
-
of the blood. Human murders multiplied beyond
all calculation."
-
Around the exact same time of Bossuet, English
naturalist John Ray (1627-1705) echoed the
-
arguments of Gassendi. "There is no doubt,
that man is not built to be a carnivorous
-
animal [as] hunt and voracity are unnatural
to him. Man has neither the sharp pointed
-
teeth or claws to slaughter his prey. On the
contrary his hands are made to pick fruits,
-
berries and vegetables and teeth appropriate
to chew them."
-
He again implores, "Everything we need to
feed ourselves and to restore and please us
-
is abundantly provided in the inexhaustible
store of Nature.” Ray closes out with what
-
really amounts to an “our food’s better
than your food” taunt: “In short our orchards
-
offer all the delights imaginable while the
slaughter houses and butchers are full of
-
congealed blood and abominable stench.”
[Nailed it.]
-
Doctor and medical reformer Philippe Hecquet
(1661-1737), who served almost exclusively
-
the poor, only seeing the wealthy when forced,
pointed out the obvious examples in nature
-
of the power of plant-based eating in answer
to those who doubted such a diet could sustain
-
strength. “'How,' they say, 'can we be supported
on Grains, which furnish but dry meal, fitter
-
to cloy than to nourish; on Fruits, which
are but condensed water?' But this … condensed
-
water is the same that has caused the Trees
to attain so great bulk … Besides, how can
-
men affect to fear failure in strength, in
eating what nourishes even the most robust
-
animals, who would become even formidable
to us, if only they knew their own strength."
-
Hecquet also comments upon how severely we
must prepare animal products in order to find
-
them palatable, yet how readily available
are the multitudes of fruit and other foods
-
from nature, which are more suited for humans.
-
The good doctor expresses an exasperated lament
that I daresay is still shared by many a vegan
-
today. “It is incredible how much Prejudice
has been allowed to operate in favour of meat,
-
while so many facts are opposed to the pretended
necessity of its use.”
-
While receiving the formal approval and commendation
of several doctors regent of the Faculty of
-
Medicine of Paris University, Hecquet’s
writings speaking to the merits of plant-based
-
eating, received much insult and ridicule
from anonymous professional critics of his
-
time, better known as The Trolls of the Renaissance.
-
Let’s close it out with Thomas Tryon (1634-1703),
an English merchant, author and passionate
-
vegetarian.[5] With a basis in his religious
beliefs, Tryon spoke to the ethics of consuming
-
animals, saying: “Refrain at all times from
such Foods as cannot be procured without violence
-
and oppression,” and “For there is greater
evil and misery attends mankind by killing,
-
horrifying and oppressing his fellow creature
and eating their flesh … than is generally
-
apprehended or imagined. Man’s strong inclination
after flesh and his making so light and small
-
a matter of killing and oppressing inferior
creatures, does manifest what principle has
-
got the dominion in him … It should be considered
that flesh and fish cannot be eaten without
-
violence and doing that which a man would
not be done unto.”
-
I hope that you enjoyed this look into the
development of veganism in Renaissance times.
-
The time it took to produce this video clocks
in at about __hours over a period of about
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5 days, including ample time creeping around
my local library for sources. If you’d like
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Now I’d love to hear your thoughts on the
Renaissance of veganism and some of the concepts
-
brought forth. And remember, citations to
everything I’ve covered (as well as many
-
further resources), are available in the blog
post.
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