Elizabeth, she necessarily became a type of two great mental
struggles of the Middle Age; first, of that between Scriptural or
unconscious, and Popish or conscious, purity: in a word, between
innocence and prudery; next, of the struggle between healthy human
affection, and the Manichean contempt with which a celibate clergy
would have all men regard the names of husband, wife, and parent.
To exhibit this latter falsehood in its miserable consequences, when
received into a heart of insight and determination sufficient to
follow out all belief to its ultimate practice, is the main object
of my Poem. That a most degrading and agonising contradiction on
these points must have existed in the mind of Elizabeth, and of all
who with similar characters shall have found themselves under
similar influences, is a necessity that must be evident to all who
know anything of the deeper affections of men. In the idea of a
married Romish saint, these miseries should follow logically from
the Romish view of human relations. In Elizabeth's case their
existence is proved equally logically from the acknowledged facts of
her conduct.

I may here observe, that if I have in no case made her allude to the
Virgin Mary, and exhibited the sense of infinite duty and loyalty to
Christ alone, as the mainspring of all her noblest deeds, it is
merely in accordance with Dietrich's biography. The omission of all
Mariolatry is remarkable. My business is to copy that omission, as
I should in the opposite case have copied the introduction of
Virgin-worship into the original tale. The business of those who
make Mary, to women especially, the complete substitute for the
Saviour--I had almost said, for all Three Persons of the Trinity--is
to explain, if they can, her non-appearance in this case.