Cordeliers (The)
,1790. A French political club in the Great Revolution. It held its meetings in the “Convent des Cordeliers,” which was in the “Place de lʹÉcole de Médecine.” The Cordeliers were the rivals of the Jacobins, and numbered among its members Paré (the president), Danton, Marat, Camille Desmoulins, Hébert, Chaumette, Dufournoy de Villiers, Fabre dʹEglantine (a journalist), and others. The Club of the Cordeliers was far in advance of the Jacobins, being the first to demand the abolition of the monarchy and the establishment of a commonwealth instead. Its leaders were put to death between March 24th and April 5th, 1794.
This club was nicknamed “The Pandemonium,” and Danton was called the “Archflend.” When Bailly, the mayor, lockéd them out of their hall in 1791, they met in the Tennis Court (Paris), and changed their name into the “Society of the Rights of Man”; but they are best known by their original appellation.
