ELGARD, Nikolaus. - Bishop, b. at Elcherait (Luxembourg) in 1547, d. at Erfurt on 11 Aug. 1587. Ordained priest at Trier, he continued his studies at the German College in Rome. Canon of Augsburg in 1573, in the following years he joined Gaspare Gropper in the work of safeguarding Catholicism in Germany.
He made several visitations to the Eichsfeld, Mainz, Bamberg, Würzburg, Franconia, Westphalia, and the Rhineland. Elected auxiliary bishop of Erfurt (1577), on the proposal of Cardinal Morone, with whom he had been at the Diet of Regensburg (1576), he was among the most notable promoters of the Catholic Reformation in central Germany. He left unpublished a pamphlet, *De laude virginitatis*, which was published posthumously.
Bibl.: A. Neyen, *Biographia Luxemb.*, Luxembourg 1866, p. 167; W.E. Schwarz, *Die Nuntiatur-Korrespondenz K. Groppers nebst verwandten Aktentüchern* (1575–76), Paderborn 1868; Pastor, IX, pp. 534–35 and passim; Eubel, III, 345, 399, I.