CORDELIERS, CLUB OF THE, or SOCIETY OF THE FRIENDS OF THE RIGHTS OF MAN AND OF THE CITIZEN, a popular society of the French Revolution. It was formed by the members of the district of the Cordeliers, when the Constituent Assembly suppressed the 6o districts of Paris to replace them with 48 sec tions (May 2I, I79o). It held its meetings at first in the suppressed monastery of the Cordeliers,—the name given in France to the Franciscan Observantists. From i791, however, it met in a hall in the rue Dauphine. Its principal function, according to its charter, was "to denounce to the tribunal of public opinion the abuse of the various powers and all infractions of the Rights of Man." Its badge was an open eye--symbol of suspicious watchfulness. Though its leaders were men of middle class, it identified itself with the interests of the masses, its power being based on its asso ciation with the popular fraternal societies and its influence in the revolutionary sections. It raised and organized the popular bat talions and inspired and directed the great demonstrations and risings (e.g., those of June 20 and Aug. 1o, 1792). After the withdrawal of the more moderate elements, it was dominated by the enrages, by Marat, and, after his death, by Hebert and his associates. After the execution of the Hebertists, March 24, I794, the club ceased to exist.
The papers emanating from the Cordeliers are enumerated in M. Tourneux, Bibliographie de l'histoire de Paris pendant la Revolution (1894), (on the trial of the Hebertists) Nos. 42o4-42/o, ii. Nos. 9795-9834 and II, 813. See also A. Bougeart, Les Cordeliers, docu ments pour servir l'histoire de la Revolution (Caen, 1890 ; G. Lenotre, Paris revolutionnaire (1895) and Albert Mathiez, Le Club des Cordeliers (Iwo).