Introduction

Biography

Lazarus was the son of Ge­org and Ag­nes Speng­ler; his fa­ther was a clerk in the Im­pe­ri­al Court of Jus­tice.

Lazarus en­tered the Uni­ver­si­ty of Leip­zig in 1491, but on the death of his fa­ther in De­cem­ber 1496, re­turned to Nur­emberg. He ob­tained a po­si­tion in the town clerk’s office, and in 1507 be­came the town clerk (Raths Syn­di­kus).

When Mar­tin Lu­ther was pass­ing through Nur­em­berg, Speng­ler met him, lat­er be­com­ing a lead­er of the Re­for­ma­tion in Nur­em­berg.

He was one of those con­demned by name in the Bull of Ex­com­mu­ni­ca­tion (De­cet Ro­man­um Pon­ti­fi­cem) is­sued by Pope Leo X in 1520 against Lu­ther and his friends.

Spengler was one of the re­pre­sent­atives to the 1521 Di­et of Worms from Nur­em­berg, and par­ti­ci­pat­ed in the 1530 Diet of Augs­burg.