Master of the Royal Secret, called Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret in the Rite's Northern Masonic Jurisdiction in the United States, is the thirty second degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite and the highest degree ordinarily conferred by petition, closing the Consistory body. It follows the thirtieth degree, Knight Kadosh, and represents the completion of the Rite's twenty nine numbered degrees that a Mason works through in the ordinary course of Scottish Rite membership.
Only the honorary thirty third degree, Inspector General Honorary, sits above it, and unlike every degree beneath it, that thirty third degree is not conferred by petition at all. This makes Master of the Royal Secret the practical ceiling of Scottish Rite advancement for the overwhelming majority of members, since the thirty third is reserved and limited rather than available to anyone who completes the sequence.
The jurisdictional naming difference, Master of the Royal Secret in the Southern Jurisdiction's usage against Sublime Prince of the Royal Secret in the Northern, reflects the broader pattern of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite's organization in the United States into two separate governing bodies, Northern and Southern Masonic Jurisdictions, each administering its own version of the degree sequence with minor variations in title and working even where the underlying numbered structure, four through thirty two plus the honorary thirty third, is shared.