The Cerneau Rite—formally known as the Cerneau System of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite—was an irregular branch of Freemasonry that emerged in the late 18th century. It takes its name from Joseph Cerneau, a French jeweler and Mason who settled in New York in the early 1800s. Cerneau claimed high Masonic authority and began conferring degrees of the Scottish Rite independently, establishing his own Supreme Council in 1807.
