The Panthéon club was a French revolutionary political club founded in Paris the 6 November 1795. Its official name was Reunion of Friends of the Republic (''Réunion des Amis de la République''). It was composed of former terrorists and unconditional

Jacobins The Society of the Friends of the Constitution (), renamed the Society of the Jacobins, Friends of Freedom and Equality () after 1792 and commonly known as the Jacobin Club () or simply the Jacobins (; ), was the most influential List of polit ...

coming from the ''

petite bourgeoisie ''Petite bourgeoisie'' (, ; also anglicised as petty bourgeoisie) is a term that refers to a social class composed of small business owners, shopkeepers, small-scale merchants, semi- autonomous peasants, and artisans. They are named as s ...

''.Membership was 50

French livre The livre (abbreviation: Pound sign, £ or Livre tournois, ₶., French language, French for (pound)) was the currency of Kingdom of France and its predecessor states of Francia and West Francia from 781 to 1794. Several different livres exist ...

s which excluded common people The club met on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève, in the former royal Abbey of St Genevieve, near the

Panthéon The Panthéon (, ), is a monument in the 5th arrondissement of Paris, France. It stands in the Latin Quarter, Paris, Latin Quarter (Quartier latin), atop the , in the centre of the , which was named after it. The edifice was built between 1758 ...

, now Lycée Henri-IV. Among the founders was René Lebois, printer and journalist of the ''Orateur plébéien'', maybe a Barras agent. The club was attended by those who wanted to redirect the Directory policy toward the left in the way of the defeat of the 13 Vendémiaire royalist insurrection. However, the politics of the club were initially rather moderate and respectful of legality in refusing to receive the ineligible

National Convention The National Convention () was the constituent assembly of the Kingdom of France for one day and the French First Republic for its first three years during the French Revolution, following the two-year National Constituent Assembly and the ...

members. But the club soon attracted a number of former Montagnards, including Jean-Pierre-André Amar and Pierre Joseph Duhem, former members of the

Committee of General Security The Committee of General Security () was a parliamentary committee of the French National Convention which acted as police agency during the French Revolution. Established as a committee of the Convention in October 1792, it was designed to protec ...

, Pierre-Antoine Antonelle, Sylvain Maréchal, Restif de La Bretonne, Jean-Nicolas Pache, and

Robert Lindet Jean-Baptiste Robert Lindet (2 May 1746 in Bernay, Eure – 17 February 1825) was a French politician of the Revolutionary period. His brother, Robert Thomas Lindet, became a constitutional bishop and member of the National Convention Th ...

, as well as Philippe Buonarroti, a Babeuf friend, who moved the club in the direction of radical republicanism. Membership in the club grew rapidly: from 934 members the 29 November 1795, its meetings attracted about 2,400 people in February 1796. Several members of the club, defeated in the

election, as well as terrorists like Augustin Darthé, former prosecutor for the

Revolutionary Tribunal The Revolutionary Tribunal (; unofficially Popular Tribunal) was a court instituted by the National Convention during the French Revolution for the trial of political offenders. In October 1793, it became one of the most powerful engines of ...

, nurtured the ambition of transforming the club. They wanted the government to give up the Constitution of the Year III of 1795 to go back to the more radical Constitution of 1793. Although not member of the club, Gracchus Babeuf was one of the key speakers and developed his ''equality'' doctrine viewed as essential elements for

communism Communism () is a political sociology, sociopolitical, political philosophy, philosophical, and economic ideology, economic ideology within the history of socialism, socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a ...

. Fearing that the club might disturb law and public order and even its own legitimacy, the Directory ordered its dissolution, and on 27 February 1796 Général

Napoléon Bonaparte Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

, commanding the Army of the Interior, carried out the orders. The leaders of the club would subsequently form the core of Babeuf's Conspiracy of the Equals.

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* {{DEFAULTSORT:Pantheon Club Groups of the French Revolution