Chapter 1 analyzes the profound importance of continental education in shaping the clerical leadership of Irish Catholicism in the Early Modern period. While not all clergy were educated abroad, formation in continental seminaries emerged as a key aspect of both the Catholic hierarchy and the guardians and preachers of the regular clergy. This system of clerical provision was based on the evolution of a somewhat haphazard network of continental colleges, but the decentralized nature of the system may in fact have conferred significant advantages. While impossible to determine the precise influence of this development, the evidence suggest that it was of profound importance in confirming the nature of the Catholic identity of most of the population.