What does "to present a foil against something" mean?

Question

Doing some translation for my friend, I met the following sentence.

For Foppe Ten Hoor, it presented a foil against Anglo-American — and not coincidentally, Arminian, subbiblical — ways.

It is from a book titled "Reformed Theology in America: A History of Its Modern Development." For its context, see this capture, which I capture from Google Books.

I couldn't figure out what "presented a foil" means, so checked online dictionary.

Merriam Webster has three entries for foil as a noun;

foil noun (1)

1: very thin sheet metal aluminum foil 2: a thin piece of material (such as metal) put under an inferior or paste stone to add color or brilliance 3: someone or something that serves as a contrast to another acted as a foil for a comedian 4 a: an indentation between cusps in Gothic tracery b: one of several arcs that enclose a complex figure 5: HYDROFOIL sense 1

foil noun (2) 1: a light fencing sword having a usually circular guard and a flexible blade > of rectangular section tapering to a blunted point — compare ÉPÉE, SABER 2: the art or sport of fencing with the foil —often used in plural

foil noun (3) 1 archaic : DEFEAT 2 archaic : the track or trail of an animal

I guess the definition in 1-3 seems fit to this case. Do I understand its meaning right? Or could you propose a rephrase for 'present a foil against'?

Thank you.

Answer 1

I have always understood a foil to be a noun form of the verb.

foil
VERB
Prevent (something considered wrong or undesirable) from succeeding.

I see it as a metaphorical use of the "light fencing sword" you mention: a strategy to deflect something undesirable.

Answer 2

As in: Vocabulary.com verb: to foil

• ... it hindered or prevented the efforts, plans, or desires
  of the Anglo-American ways.

As a verb, if you foil someone's plans or attempts to do something, you cause them to fail.

Answer 3

The Word Detective has an article on this subject.

http://www.word-detective.com/2011/12/foiled/

“Foil,” closely related to that “full,” also first appeared in English in the 14th century, with the specific sense of “to trample down,” and eventually developed a sense specific to hunting meaning “to trample down and thus obscure a track or scent, thus preventing hounds from tracking the game.” This “foiling” could be done by other animals or even by the hounds themselves. In either case, it marked a defeat for the hunters, and by the 16th century “foil” was being used in its modern sense to mean “to defeat, to block, to baffle a foe.”