My purpose in writing this Series was, as much as possible, to 
      confine my view to the introduction, progress, and operation of 
      the Church in England, both previous and subsequent to the 
      Reformation. The Sonnets were written long before ecclesiastical 
      history and points of doctrine had excited the interest with which 
      they have been recently enquired into and discussed. The former 
      particular is mentioned as an excuse for my having fallen into 
      error in respect to an incident which had been selected as setting 
      forth the height to which the power of the Popedom over temporal 
      sovereignty had attained, and the arrogance with which it was 
      displayed. I allude to the last Sonnet but one in the first 
      series, where Pope Alexander the third at Venice is described as 
      setting his foot on the neck of the Emperor Barbarossa. Though 
      this is related as a fact in history, I am told it is a mere 
      legend of no authority. Substitute for it an undeniable truth not 
      less fitted for my purpose, namely, the penance inflicted by 
      Gregory the Seventh upon the Emperor Henry the Fourth.
<BR><BR>
        Before I conclude my notice of these Sonnets, let me observe 
      that the opinion I pronounced in favour of Laud (long before the 
      Oxford Tract movement) and which had brought censure upon me from 
      several quarters, is not in the least changed. Omitting here to 
      examine into his conduct in respect to the persecuting spirit with 
      which he has been charged, I am persuaded that most of his aims to 
      restore ritual practices which had been abandoned were good and 
      wise, whatever errors he might commit in the manner he sometimes 
      attempted to enforce them. I further believe that, had not he, and 
      others who shared his opinions and felt as he did, stood up in 
      opposition to the reformers of that period, it is questionable 
      whether the Church would ever have recovered its lost ground and 
      become the blessing it now is, and will, I trust, become in a 
      still greater degree, both to those of its communion and to those 
      who unfortunately are separated from it.

<hr>

        During the month of December 1820, I accompanied a much-beloved 
      and honoured Friend in a walk through different parts of his 
      estate, with a view to fix upon the site of a new Church which he 
      intended to erect. It was one of the most beautiful mornings of a 
      mild season,--our feelings were in harmony with the cherishing 
      influences of the scene; and such being our purpose, we were 
      naturally led to look back upon past events with wonder and 
      gratitude, and on the future with hope. Not long afterwards, some 
      of the Sonnets which will be found towards the close of this 
      series were produced as a private memorial of that morning's 
      occupation.
<BR><BR>
        The Catholic Question, which was agitated in Parliament about 
      that time, kept my thoughts in the same course; and it struck me 
      that certain points in the Ecclesiastical History of our Country 
      might advantageously be presented to view in verse. Accordingly, I 
      took up the subject, and what I now offer to the reader was the 
      result.
<BR><BR>
        When this work was far advanced, I was agreeably surprised to 
      find that my friend, Mr. Southey, had been engaged with similar 
      views in writing a concise History of the Church 'in' England. If 
      our Productions, thus unintentionally coinciding, shall be found 
      to illustrate each other, it will prove a high gratification to 
      me, which I am sure my friend will participate.
<dl>
<dd>W. WORDSWORTH.
<dt>RYDAL MOUNT, January 24, 1822.
</dl>
<BR><BR>
        For the convenience of passing from one point of the subject to 
      another without shocks of abruptness, this work has taken the 
      shape of a series of Sonnets: but the Reader, it is to be hoped, 
      will find that the pictures are often so closely connected as to 
      have jointly the effect of passages of a poem in a form of stanza 
      to which there is no objection but one that bears upon the Poet 
      only--its difficulty.