Gebhard (III) of Constance

Who was Gebhard (III) of Constance?

Gebhard III was Bishop of Constance and defender of papal rights against imperial encroachments during the Investiture Controversy.

He was a son of Berthold II, Duke of Carinthia, and a brother of Berthold II, Duke of Swabia. 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. At an imperial synod held in Mainz, in April, 1085, Gebhard and fourteen other German bishops who remained faithful to Gregory VII were deposed, and Otto I was declared the lawful Bishop of Constance. However, the latter died in the beginning of 1086, and Gebhard was able to take possession of his see. One of his first acts as bishop was the reform of the Benedictine monastery of Petershausen near Constance, which he recruited with monks from Hirschau. In 1089 he consecrated the new cathedral of Constance, to replace the old one which had fallen into ruins in 1052.