The Religious Divide

Protestant is a general term for Christian groups that ''protested'' the Roman Catholic Church in the 16th and 17th century. It began with the ''reformation'' of Martin Luther in 1517 when he posted his ''95 theses'' on the church door.
'Puritan' refers to English Christians who believed that the ''English Reformation'' begun when King Henry VIII separated from the Catholic church to form the Anglican church (church of England) They believed its church teachings and rituals needed further changes. They believed they should 'purify' it from within. 

During the Civil War the country found itself divide into two religious sides; the Puritans supporting the parliamentarians, and the more conservative Protestants along with the few Catholics supporting the King. This divide continued into the reign of King Charles II, and led the the capturing and killing of Catholics going into the late 1600's. This forced Catholics, especially priests to go into hiding.

The Nursery rhyme has reference to the Parliamentarians finding a Catholic in hiding and throwing him down the stairs. This hunt for Catholics led to the creation of priest holes. 

I visited Speke Hall, which was a Tudor house that had been modified to cater for the needs of the priests during the 17th century.  

            

            

Unfortunately I was unable to take a photograph of the priest holes, as it was not prohibited within the building. And so i took a very quick (very basic!) sketch of my findings: 

 

When the house was about to be searched, the priest would remove wall panel A and use a rope ladder to climb up panel B and across onto panel C where he would sit and wait until the search was over. They would then pull up the rope and another person would place panel A back onto the wall to disguise the priest hole.