JACOBINS. - The Jacobin club was, among the societies and political groups that arose during the French Revolution, one of the most important, and through its action in Parliament and on public opinion it influenced the course of the Revolution itself in a decisive manner. Having arisen even before June 17, 1789 (the constitution of the National Assembly at Versailles) among the Breton deputies of the clergy and the third estate in May, it first took the name of the Breton club. This committee, at first regional in basis, soon became a center of attraction for other deputies as well, and after the Assembly's transfer to Paris in October, it rented the refectory of the convent of the Dominicans, called Jacobins, in the rue St-Honoré and became the Société des Amis de la Constitution at first, and the Société des Jacobins afterward. Having lost the characteristic of being essentially a society made up of members of the assembly, the Jacobin club counted among its adherents not only politicians, but also merchants, artists, journalists, all people eager to participate in and influence, even if only indirectly, the implementation of the new revolutionary principles. During the monarchy the Jacobins were loyal supporters of the Bourbons. They were not yet republicans, but only determined supporters of the Constitution. Confident in the establishment of a constitutional monarchy under Louis XVI, they were not opposed to the king; but when in 1792 they realized that such a program was unrealizable, they abandoned the platform of the monarchical Constitution and, once the death of the sovereign on the guillotine had been decreed, became champions of the utmost revolutionary intransigence. The influence of the Jacobin club grew immeasurably: even the Convention, considered omnipotent, in substance did nothing but conform to the wishes of this society. The Terror and the dictatorship of Robespierre, with the violent persecution of the clergy faithful to Rome and of Catholics that characterizes the bloodiest period of the Revolution, are a consequence of the political action carried out by the Jacobins in Paris and throughout France (there were nearly 2500 Jacobin societies in the various French provinces) in favor of an energetic repression of every activity or thought not considered orthodoxly revolutionary. After the arrest and condemnation of Robespierre, the Jacobin club was dissolved, and an attempt at reconstruction carried out in 1799 was harshly suppressed by Fouché, minister of police and a former Jacobin.

Bibliography8 works

BIBL.: A. Aulard, La Société des Jacobins. Recueil de documents pour l'histoire du Club des Jacobins de Paris, 6 vols., Paris 1889-97; E. Boursin-A. Challamel, Dictionnaire de la Révolution Française, ibid. 1893, p. 354; A. Fribourg, Le Club des Jacobins en 1790 d'après de nouveaux documents, ibid. 1910; A. Aulard, Le Club des Jacobins sous la monarchie (Etudes et leçons sur la Révolution Française), 1st series, ibid. 1911, pp. 71-92; id., Les derniers Jacobins, ibid., 7th series, ibid. 1913, pp. 84-112; G. Martin, Les Jacobins, ibid. 1945; G. Gratton, Origine ed evoluzione dei partiti politici, Trieste 1946, passim; J. Castelnau, Le Club des Jacobins 1789-95, Paris 1948.

Silvio Furlani

@incollection{ec6_giacobini, author = {Furlani, Silvio}, title = {Giacobini}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VI}, pages = {312--313}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/giacobini} }

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