1764 12 avril : Création de la Loge les "
Parfaits d'Écosse " à la Nouvelle Orléans - C'est le premier atelier de hauts grades sur le continent nord
Américain
The Original Rite of 25 Degrees
A French trader, by the name of Estienne Morin, had been involved in high degree
Masonry in Bordeaux since 1744 and, in 1747, founded an "Ecossais" lodge (Scots Masters Lodge) in the city of Le
Cap Francais, on the north coast of the French colony of Saint-Domingue (now Haiti). Over the next decade, high
degree Freemasonry continued to spread to the Western hemisphere as the high degree lodge at Bordeaux warranted or
recognized seven Ecossais lodges there. In Paris in the year 1761, a Patent was issued to Estienne Morin, dated 27 August creating him "Grand Inspector for all parts
of the New World." This Patent was signed by officials of the Grand Lodge at Paris and appears to have originally
granted him power over the craft lodges only, and not over the high, or "Ecossais", degree lodges. Later copies of
this Patent appear to have been embellished, probably by Morin, to improve his position over the high degree lodges
in the West Indies.[10 ]
Early writers long believed that a "Rite of Perfection" consisting of 25 degrees,
the highest being the "Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret", and being the predecessor of the Scottish Rite, had
been formed in Paris by a high degree council calling itself "The Council of Emperors of the East and West". The
title "Rite of Perfection" first appeared in the Preface to the "Grand Constitutions of 1786", the authority for
which is now known to be faulty.[11] It is now generally accepted that
this Rite of twenty-five degrees was compiled by Estienne Morin and is therefore more properly titled "The
Rite of the Royal Secret", or "Morin's Rite".[12]
Morin returned to the West Indies in 1762 or 1763, to Saint-Domingue, where, armed
with his new Patent, he assumed powers to constitute lodges of all degrees, spreading the high degrees throughout
the West Indies and North America. Morin stayed in Saint-Domingue until 1766 when he moved to Jamaica. At Kingston,
Jamaica, in 1770, Morin created a "Grand Chapter" of his new Rite (the Grand Council of Jamaica). Morin died in
1771 and was buried in Kingston.[13]
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