Gebhard III (bishop of Constance)

Gebhard III (c. 1040 – 12 November 1110) was Bishop of Constance and defender of papal rights against imperial encroachments during the Investiture Controversy.

For some time, he was provost of Kanten, then entered the Benedictine monastery in Hirschau and, on 22 December 1084, was consecrated Bishop of Constance by the cardinal-legate, Otto of Ostia, the future Urban II.

The see of Constance was then occupied by the imperial anti-Bishop Otto I, who, though excommunicated and deposed by Pope Gregory VII in 1080, retained his see by force of arms.

With the assistance of Henry V, Gebhard regained his see in 1105, freed the king from the ban by order of Pope Paschal II, and accompanied him on his journey to Saxony.

Gebhard attended the Synod of Nordhausen on 27 May 1105, the diet at Mainz on Christmas, 1105, was sent as imperial legate to Rome in the spring of 1106, and was present at the Council of Guastalla in October of the same year.