On April 15, 1530, a Good Friday, 70 nobles, 7 knights, 120 travelers and soldiers rode through the Coburg Spitaltor gate. The entourage included Martin Luther as well as theologian Philipp Melanchthon and Justus Jonas. The group of travelers took shelter in the City of Coburg. Luther was not able to continue to Augsburg with his companions because he was under imperial ban. In the middle ages and in the early modern period, the imperial ban (from the old German word for persecution), was among the harshest punishments of all.