wife and two sons. A bronze memorial tablet to him, as the third bishop of Birmingham, was erected in the south aisle of Birmingham Cathedral, near where his ashes, together with those of his wife, are placed under the pavement marked by a slab with the initials "EWB". Controversies Barnes was perhaps the best known liberal bishop of his time, identified with the modernist or broad church movement. His episcopate was marked by continual controversy. His book The Rise of Christianity (1947) attacked many Christian claims, including the Virgin Birth and the bodily resurrection of Christ. This led to calls that he should resign as a bishop. This Barnes refused to do. Earlier he had written Should Such a Faith Offend? (1927) and Scientific Theory and Religion (1933), and he was a contributor to 18 other books. His attack on Francis of Assisi as "probably verminous" drew a rebuke in verse from G. K. Chesterton. He was also politically active. In 1940, he lost a libel case in which he had attacked the Cement Makers' Federation for allegedly holding up the supply of cement, for their own profit at a time of great national need, in the construction of air-raid shelters. Undaunted by this set-back, Barnes returned to his accusations on the cement ring in a speech he delivered in the House of Lords the following year. Pacifism and eugenics He was an uncompromising pacifist, and spoke out against British participation in the Second World War. He also expressed eugenic views. Though a member of the Eugenic Society from 1924 until his death in 1953, it was not until after the Second World War that he openly argued in favour of voluntary sterilisation as a means to overcome the apparent prevalence of "mental deficiency" in society. Several of these eugenic-themed lectures gained significant newspaper coverage in The Times and The Manchester Guardian, sparking a fervent public debate in which inevitable – if not entirely justifiable – parallels were drawn between Barnes' arguments and Nazi ideology. In his latter years Barnes was thus a pacifist, religious leader and campaigner for the perceived declining cause of eugenics. Personal life In 1916, Barnes married Adelaide Caroline Theresa Ward, daughter of Sir Adolphus Ward. Together they had two sons: John was a diplomat, who served as ambassador to Israel and the Netherlands; and William, a public servant and philanthropist. See also Barnes G-function Barnes