::According to Michael Poll, Morin was 25th Degree, and he invented the additional degrees.  The dangers of mixing the so-called "Rite of Perfection" with the 33 degree AASR come into clear focus (hah!) here. All of the ones who trace themselves down from Morin, including Mitchell who were given the rank of DIG, were "Rite of Perfection" Masons who held the 25th degree of that system. The 32nd degree is that of the 1801 33 degree system. It is apples and oranges. A 25th degree Mason can not make another Mason a 32nd degree. No one was a 32nd or 33rd prior to 1801.  Morin is said to have been a 33rd via the so-called "Secret Grand Constitutions of 1762." This collection of documents was rather soundly debunked by Albert Pike himself in his "Grand Constitutions". There he published the complete "Secret Constitutions" and shows why they are fake. There is not one scrap of evidence that Wilmans or anyone else else possessed the 33rd degree prior to 1801. Nothing. When we read things like "he was known to possess" this or that, big red flags should go up. How was he "known" to have this? By some document that we can examine or some book or writer who says that he had this? Big difference. So very much of our "known facts" are just what someone thinks or believes. They are hardly facts. So ... how did Mitchell become a 32rd and then a 33rd? Read Coil's (either edition) and see what happened to the old DIG's of the "Rite of Perfection." When the AASR was created, they "slid over" to the 32nd degree of the AASR. Now read some more of Pike's "Grand Constitutions." You see, in the very early days, the early AASR 33rds acted very much like the RofP's DIG's in more ways than we might think about. In order words, there were times when ones rank allowed him to assume greater authority if there was no one senior to him in the area. That's right. Following the common practice of the RofP, it seems logical that Mitchell made himself a 33rd by the fact that he was both the senior DIG in the area (allowing him to "slide over to the 32nd of the AASR) and then being the senior 32nd, becoming a 33rd.  Guy Chassagnard has a book in French about it, called (I believe) To the Roots of the Scottish Rite although I do not know the publishing house.