Alexandre Roëttiers de Montaleau

Alexandre-Louis Roëttiers de Montaleau (22 November 1748 – 30 January 1808) was a French medallist, civil servant, mint administrator and Free-Mason. He served in the Paris Chamber of Accounts and directed the Paris Mint during the French Revolution.

Roëttiers de Montaleau was also one of the most influential leaders of the Grand Orient de France during the revolutionary and Napoleonic periods. He maintained a measure of Masonic activity during the Reign of Terror, protected the archives of the Grand Orient, assisted its reconstruction after the Revolution and contributed to the organization and codification of the French Rite. In 1796 he was elected Grand Vénérable, making him the effective head of the obedience.

Early life and family

Roëttiers de Montaleau was born in Paris on 22 November 1748 into a family of engravers, medallists and royal goldsmiths. His father, Jacques Roettiers, was a goldsmith to the king and belonged to the Roëttiers dynasty of engravers, several members of which worked for the French and British royal mints.

In 1756, Jacques Roëttiers acquired the estates of La Tour and Montaleau at Sucy-en-Brie. His sons subsequently incorporated the names of these estates into their family names: Alexandre-Louis adopted de Montaleau, while his brother, the goldsmith Jacques-Nicolas Roettiers, became known as Roëttiers de La Tour.

Roëttiers de Montaleau was trained in drawing, engraving and medal-making. He initially followed the artistic and mint-related profession of his family but gradually entered royal financial administration. In 1775 he became an auditor in the Paris Chamber of Accounts, and in 1787 he attained the rank of conseiller-maître.

Roëttiers de Montaleau was one of the principal organizers of the Grand Chapitre Général de France and architect of the Orders of Wisdom, established in 1783 to bring the numerous French systems of Masonic high degrees rituals under a more coherent structure of Orders. The chapter was eventually incorporated into the Grand Orient de France.

The work of the Grand Chapter contributed to the arrangement of the many rituals into four principal philosophical orders of wisdom and an administrative or conservatory order known as the fifth Order. Roëttiers de Montaleau also participated in the broader standardization of the ceremonies that became known as the French Rite thus creating the oldest organized masonic system recognized by a Grand Lodge. These rituals were later circulated in manuscript and published in the early nineteenth century in the works commonly called the Régulateur du Maçon and the Régulateur des Chevaliers Maçons. His funeral service was held at the Church of Saint-Sulpice in Paris, and a number of Masonic lodges subsequently organized commemorative ceremonies in his honour.

His reputation in French Masonic history rests principally on three activities: the preservation of the Grand Orient's archives and organizational continuity during the Revolution; the reconstruction and reunification of the obedience after the Terror; and his participation in the organization of the French Rite and its philosophical orders.

Masonic historians have consequently described him as one of the principal figures connecting the institutional Free-Masonry of the late Ancien Régime with that of the Napoleonic era. A ceremonial hall at the headquarters of the Grand Orient de France in the Rue Cadet in Paris bears his name.