The castle has been owned by Durham University since 1840,
and is now primarily devoted to student housing. The cathedral is a massive
structure similar to other massive cathedrals of the same era, and is
distinguished as being the final resting place of St. Cuthbert, the Venerable
Bede, and the head of Oswald, King of Northumbria, who was killed in battle in
year 642. St. Cuthbert died a few years later and was buried at Lindisfarne
(Holy Island). He was so revered that 200 years after his death, when Lindisfarne
was threatened by an onslaught from the Danes, his remains were removed, eventually
ending up in Durham. The Durham Cathedral became his shrine.
Bishops were strong political figures as well as religious
figures. It is said that the Bishop of Durham was, in effect, the King of Northumbria,
because the London King had little means of controlling land so distant. With such
great political power conferred upon church officials, is it any wonder that
the draftsmen of the U.S. Constitution forbade both a national religion and
hereditary titles?
One of the bishops of Durham was an ancestor of George
Washington, and the family coat of arms appears among others on a high ceiling
(too high for me to photograph). The coat of arms of the Washington family
consists of alternating red and white stripes, topped by a row of six-pointed
stars said to be spurs. George Washington was idolized in his time, much more
than he is today in America. There are some who believe that the stars and
stripes of the U.S. flag were based on the Washington family coat of arms. It’s
merely a coincidence that the city bearing his name sits at the head of a
peninsula between the Potomac River and Chesapeake Bay.
