Zimmer too shows that the Irish missionaries were not merely the representatives of Christianity: “they were instructors in every branch of science and learning of the time, possessors and bearers of a higher culture than was at that time to be found anywhere on the Continent, and can surely claim to have been the pioneers,—to have laid the corner stone of western culture on the Continent.”[539] We have reached the end of our study. We have traced the rise, growth, and influence of the Irish monastic schools during the sixth, seventh, eighth, and ninth centuries. Their work and influence lasted for several centuries after the ninth, but during the period which we have investigated their influence was a dominant one in the history of European education. In the later centuries other factors contributed to the advancement of learning in Western Europe and while the Irish contribution was by no means negligible it was less distinctive, less significant, than during the period ending with the ninth century. If, then, we would form a correct idea of the position that Irish monastic schools occupy in the history of western culture, we have but to contrast the actual state of contemporary learning in the rest of Western Europe with that available in these schools; or to recall their large number and wide distribution, noting the liberal nature of the course of studies pursued therein and the generosity with which that learning was extended to all irrespective of race or social position. In either case we are driven to the conclusion that these schools were indeed the greatest educational factor of early mediæval times, that they were, in reality, the universities of the West, the lights that illumined the (so-called) Dark Ages. BIBLIOGRAPHY SOURCES Adamnan, _Vita Sancti Columbae_, ed. Wm. Reeves, Dublin, 1857. Aengus, _Feilire_, _Lebor Brec_, p. 23b; Book of Leinster, p. 373c: Book of Ballymote; ed. Whitley Stokes, Dublin, 1880. Aethicus Istrius, _Cosmographia_, ed. Wuttke, Leipsig, 1854; extract in Wood-Martin’s _Pagan Ireland_, p. 84. Aileran, _Interpretatio Mystica Progenitorum Christi_ in Migne’s _Patrologia Latina_ tomus 80. Alcuin, _Opera Omnia_, ed. Froben in _Migne P. L._ tom. 100–101. Aldhelm, _Opera_, ed. Dr. Giles in _Migne P. L._ tom. 89, col. 63. _Ancient Laws of Ireland_, 5 vols., Dublin, 1865–1901. _Annals of the Four Masters_, ed. John O’Donovan, Dublin, 1848–51. _Annals of Tighernach_, ed. Whitley Stokes in _Revue Celtique_, vols. xvi.–xviii. _Annals of Ulster_, ed. Wm. Hennessey and Bartholemy MacCarthy. 3 vols. Dublin, 1893, 1895, 1901. _Antiphonarium Benchorense_, in O’Laverty’s _Ecclesiastical History of Down and Connor_, vol. ii, p. xvii. Bede, _Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum_, English trans., revised by Sellar, London, 1884.