Under the leadership of Reverend William Cowherd (1763–1816), members of the Bible Christian Church (BCC) in England placed their faith in the relationship between the abstinence of flesh consumption and personal salvation. In 1817, forty-one parishioners of the BCC (known as “Cowherdites”) brought these beliefs to the New World. Citing Genesis 1:29, these practitioners made vegetarianism a criterion for membership in the Church: “And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, which has fruit yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.”
