Within the French Neo-Gnostic movement, late antique Gnosticism was reimagined by drawing on contemporary advancements in both Patristic and Coptic studies. This paper explores the movement's fundamental connection with academic research. The aftermath of the French Revolution gave rise to several schismatic churches, such as the Gallican churches, which attempted to create new Catholic identities independent of the Roman See. This breach with Rome resulted in a crisis of identity; consequently, an emerging clerical subculture, which increasingly integrated with esotericism, sought new sources of legitimacy. Claiming to represent a "pure, primitive form of Christianity" (Pearson 2007), the protagonists of this subculture identified with late antique heterodox Christian teachings as alternative sources of authority.