The Society of the Friends of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen, mainly known as Cordeliers Club, was a populist political club during the French Revolution from 1790 to 1794, when the Reign of Terror ended and the Thermidorian Reaction began.

What did the cordeliers do?

The club campaigned for universal suffrage and direct democracy, including the referendum. It energetically served as a watchdog looking for signs of abuse of power by the men in power. By 1793, it was challenging the centralization of power by Robespierre and his Committee of Public Safety.

What does cordelier mean?

/ ˌkɔr dlˈɪər / PHONETIC RESPELLING. noun. a Franciscan friar: so called from the knotted cord worn as a girdle. Cordeliers, a political club in Paris that met at an old Cordelier convent at the time of the French Revolution.