|
|
|
|
|
CordeliersThe Cordeliers, also known as the Club of the Cordeliers and formally as the Society of the Friends of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen comprised a populist society during the French Revolution. It was formed by the members of the district of the Cordeliers, when the National Constituent Assembly suppressed the 60 districts of Paris to replace them with 48 sections (May 21, 1790). The club held its meetings at first in the church of the monastery of the Cordeliers, - the name given in France to the Franciscan Observantists, - now the Dupuytren museum of anatomy in connection with the school of medicine. From 1791, however, the Cordeliers met in a hall in the rue Dauphine. The aim of the society was to keep an eye on the government; its emblem on its papers was simply an open eye. It sought as well to encourage revolutionary measures against the monarchy and the old rgime, and it was it especially which popularised the motto "Liberty, Equality, Fraternity". It took an active part in the movement against the monarchy of June 20 and August 10, 1792; but after that date the more moderate leaders of the club, Georges Danton, Fabre d'glantine and Camille Desmoulins, seem to have ceased attending, and the enrags obtained control, such as J. R. Hbert, F. N. Vincent, C. P. H. Ronsin and A. F. Momoro. Its influence was especially seen in the creation of the revolutionary army destined to assure provisions for Paris, and in the establishment of the worship of Reason. The Cordeliers were combated by those revolutionists who wished to end the Terror, especially by Danton, and by Camille Desmoulins in his journal Le Vieux Cordelier. The club disowned Danton and Desmoulins and attacked Robespierre for his "moderation", but the new insurrection which it attempted failed, and its leaders were guillotined on March 24, 1794, from which date nothing is known of the club. We know little of its composition. The papers emanating from the Cordeliers are enumerated in M. Tourneux, Bibliographie de l'histoire de Paris pendant la Rvolution (1894), i. (on the trial of the Hbertists) Nos. 4204-4210, ii. Nos. 9795-9834 and 11,813. See also A. Bougeart Les Cordeliers, documents pour servir a lhistoire de la Rvolution (Caen, 1891); G. Lenotre, Paris rvolutionnaire (Paris, 1895); G. Tridon, Les Hbertists, plainte contre une calomnie de lhistoire (Paris, 1864). The last-named author was condemned to four months prison; his work was reprinted in 1871. The inventory of the pictures found in 1790 in the monastery of the Cordeliers was published by J. Guiffrey in Nouvelles archives de lart francais, viii., 2nd series, iii. (1880).
Original text from 1911 Encyclopdia Britannica. Please update as needed.
|
 |
|
| Copyright 2005-2009 OnPedia.com. All Rights Reserved |
|
|