An open letter (written in French) to the Rev. E. Lacheret (1851–1920), pastor of the Eglise Réformée in Paris and chairman of the Permanent Commission of the National Union of Evangelical Reformed Churches in France. In the letter Kuyper advances a challenge to the Eglise Réformée in France that he had first put forward in an asterism (see 1907.14). According to Kuyper, the Eglise Réformée had shown a lack of principle when negotiating the legislation of December 9, 1905, which separated church and state in France. Lacheret had indicated that he would answer Kuyper’s charges but since his letter had not yet materialized, Kuyper took the initiative to continue what he considered an important dispute.

With documentary evidence Kuyper showed that the Eglise Réformée had always understood itself to be a divine institution. As he saw it this confession was incompatible with its acquiescence to become a private society—a so-called “association of worshipers”—regulated by the state. Since the state had threatened to confiscate all church property and to cut off all ministerial subsidies, the Eglise Réformée had felt compelled to accept the government’s compensation scheme. Kuyper argued that this decision was “characterless” and amounted to a “selling of its right as firstborn” (see 1907.14). On his way home from his lengthy travels around the Mediterranean, Kuyper also discussed this settlement with the French prime minister and his vision made the pages of the Osservatore Romano, albeit in distorted form (cf. 1908.25, pp. [502]–503).

This letter was also included in De Standaard, no. 10725, March 4, 1907. Kuyper described the course of the argument in De Standaard, no. 10744, March 26, 1907.