I am a vegetarian, but don't know much about the history of vegetarianism. I'd love to find out about it.
Believe it or not, vegetarianism has roots all the way back to ancient India and Greece!
Good grief. Didn't realize it was that old! So the people in India and Greece were vegetarians - no wonder their cuisines are loaded with veggie dishes!
That's a very good point! In civilizations in Italy and Greece, they believed in the idea of nonviolence towards animals and vegetarianism was promoted by religious groups and philosphers.
I know Indian food is partly guided by Hindu beliefs, but hadn't realized that about Italy and Greece. What kind of religious groups?
Well, several orders of monks in medieval Europe were thought to have banned meat for ascetic reasons, but none of them abstained from eating fish. I wonder if that's why some vegetarians today still eat fish.
The Catholic church used to have meat free Fridays and advised people to eat fish. Maybe that's something to do with it. I believe people who eat fish but no other meat are called Pescatarians. Is that correct?
Yes, it is! I recently read that during the Roman Empire, mainly during the 4th-6th centuries, vegetarianism nearly disappeared from Europe. I'm glad it didn't!
I'm glad too - I'd have nothing to eat, lol. Wonder why the practice lost popularity.
banned the consumption of meat for ascetic reasons, but none of them abstained from the consumption of fish; these monks were not vegetarians, but some were pescetarians. Vegetarianism was to reemerge somewhat in Europe during the Renaissance and became a more widespread practice during the 19th and 20th centuries. The figures for the percentage of the Western world which is vegetarian varies between 0.5% and 4% per Mintel data in September 2006. 
Ancient.
Ancient Indian subcontinent.
Ancient Indian subcontinent Early Jainism and Buddhism.
Jain and Buddhist sources show
West but protected in much of India.
History.
Analyzing the history of vegetarianism and opposition to it from ancient Greece to the present day, literary scholar Renan Larue found certain commonalities in what he described as carnist arguments. According to him, carnists typically held that vegetarianism is a ludicrous idea unworthy of attention, that mankind is invested with dominion over animals by divine authority, and that abstaining from violence against animals would pose a threat to humans. He found that the views that farmed animals do not suffer, and