by M. de Bérage, introduction and translation by S. Brent Morris and Arturo de Hoyos
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LES PLUS SECRETS MYSTÈRES des Hauts Grades de la Maçonnerie Dévoilés (The Most Secret Mysteries of the High Degrees of Masonry Unveiled), edited by M. de Bérage, was an exposé published in 1766 and was the first printed book to give the rituals of the hauts grades (high degrees) of Masonry. It is one of the most important books for understanding the origins of the degrees of the Ancient & Accepted Scottish Rite in the eighteenth century. Bérage’s degrees were not necessarily the most popular or the most important of those being worked, but they were the first to be published, and thus set the standard for future high degrees.
The importance of Les Plus Secrets Mystères can be compared to that of Samuel Prichard’s Masonry Dissected, which first published the secrets of the Master Mason Degree in 1730. It was incredibly successful, in its first two weeks of publication it went through three editions, a newspaper reprint, and a pirated edition!
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