COLENSO, JOHN WILLIAM English bishop of Natal, was born at St. Austell, Cornwall, on Jan. 24, 1814. In 1836 he was second wrangler and Smith's prizeman at Cambridge, and in 1837 he became fellow of St. John's. Two years later he went to Harrow as mathematical tutor, but the school was just then at the lowest ebb, and Colenso not only had few pupils, but lost most of his property by a fire. He went back to Cambridge, and in a short time paid off heavy debts by diligent tutoring and the proceeds of his series of manuals of algebra (1841) and arithmetic (1843) , which were adopted all over Eng land. In 1846 he became rector of Forncett St. Mary, Norfolk, and in 1853 he was appointed bishop of Natal. He learned the Zulu language, of which he compiled a grammar and a dictionary, and translated the New Testament and other portions of Scripture into Zulu. He had already given evidence, in a volume of sermons dedicated to Maurice, that he was not satisfied with the traditional views about the Bible. The puzzling questions put to him by the Zulus strengthened him in this attitude and led him to make a critical examination of the Pentateuch. His conclusions, positive and negative, were published in a series of seven treatises on the Pentateuch, extending from 1862 to 1879, with the general title, The Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua critically examined.
While the controversy raged in England, the South African bishops, whose suspicions Colenso had already incurred by the liberality of his views respecting polygamy among native converts and by a commentary upon the Epistle to the Romans (186r) , in which he combated the doctrine of eternal punishment, met, and pronounced his deposition (Dec. 1863) . Colenso, who had refused to appear before their tribunal otherwise than as sending a protest by proxy, appealed to the privy council which pro nounced that the metropolitan of Cape Town (Robert Gray) had no coercive jurisdiction and no authority to interfere with the bishop of Natal. No decision, therefore, was given upon the merits of the case. His adversaries, though unable to obtain his condemnation, succeeded in causing him to be generally inhibited from preaching in England, and Bishop Gray not only excom municated him but consecrated a rival bishop for Natal (W. K. Macrorie), who, however, took his title from Maritzburg. An attempt to deprive him of his episcopal income was frustrated by a decision of the courts. Colenso returned to his diocese, and con tinued his work as a biblical commentator and translator. By his championship of the natives against Boer oppression and official encroachments he made more enemies among the colonists than he had ever made among the clergy. He died at Durban on June 20, 1883.
See Sir G. W. Cox, Life of John William Colenso (z888).