“I am sorry to inform you that you are the victim of a betrayal. Your son Edgardo has been baptized, and I have been ordered to take him with me." These words were uttered by a papal police officer who stood in the home of Edgardo Mortara. The Kidnapping of Edgardo Mortara tells the story of this six year-old boy, Edgardo, who is stolen from his family by the Vatican in the mid 1800s. The boy is then secretly baptized by one of the family’s servants, and thus becomes a Christian . This may not seem like a large problem, however in this time in Italy, it is against the law for a Christian child to live with a Jewish family. Thus, in June of 1858 the Inquisitor of Bologna gives orders for the police to go to the home of Edgardo Mortara, to remove him from his family, and to bring him to Rome where he will live and be educated in the Christian ideology. Throughout this novel, the idea of Enlightenment is always prevalent. Nineteenth century Italy was a time focused on the unification of Italy, which was populated by many with opposing views. At the time of the abduction, Enlightenment had been a strong force in Europe for over a century and Europe was filled with varying opinions on religion, government and lifestyle. The Enlightenment, as described by Immanuel Kant in the New World Encyclopedia, was a time of “increasing empiricism, scientific rigor, and reductionism, along with increased questioning of religious orthodoxy.” People had began to think freely for themselves and began to question the Church and believe in their own personal rights. As a result of this, there were many views on the morality of the kidnapping of the child. As Kirtzer writes “the spread of Enlightenment ideas of freedom of religion and separation of church and state was increasingly swaying public opinion”. The Enlightenment movement was extremely important in this book and greatly influenced the events that took place. Views on the Church As people began to think freely, they began to consider that perhaps the Church should not have so much control and should not be able to regulate every aspect of the country. For centuries, the Church had had complete secular power in Italy and had controlled the people without q