Private collection of Cambridge’s "heretic" bishop goes on show

Letters and publications belonging to John Colenso, a 19th-century missionary who caused outrage for his sympathetic work with Zulus in South Africa, and his open questioning of the provenance of the Old Testament, are being put on public display to mark the 200th anniversary of his birth. Colenso occupied a position of influence and was deeply controversial, partly because many of his views were slightly ahead of their time - Kathryn McKee The private letters and publications of Bishop John Colenso, a pioneering 19th century missionary who enraged the South African colonial authorities with his outspoken campaigns on behalf of the Zulu population, are being put on public display. The exhibition, entitled The Missionary College, marks the bicentenary of Colenso's birth, and can be seen from today (3 February) at St John's College, Cambridge, where he was a student. Appointed the first Church of England Bishop of Natal in 1852, Colenso became a prominent and often controversial public figure. He campaigned against the colonial government in defence of local Zulu tribes, and publicly criticised the British for starting the Anglo-Zulu war. He was also briefly excommunicated from the Church itself, after he caused outrage by questioning the historical accuracy of parts of the Bible - a position which was highly unconventional for a Bishop at the time, and which led to a running feud with his immediate superiors. The small exhibition also tells the story of a second graduate missionary, Thomas Whytehead, whose attempts to do similar work with the Maori population in New Zealand were cut short when he died while working for the country's first mission in 1843.