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August 11. Anagni. Pope Alexander IV writes to the master and brothers of the Hospital of St John of Jerusalem, praising their role in support of the Holy Land in a long arenga and relating that he has learned that there is no distinction in dress between the brother knights of their order and the rest, unlike what is observed in many other similar orders. On account of this, when many nobles wish to leave behind the attractions of the world and choose to support the Holy Land in the habit of the Hospitallers, their charity grows cold toward the order. The pope desires the continual growth of the order, so he grants that they can establish unanimously and observe afterwards inviolably that the brother knights of their order shall wear a black mantle, so that they can be distinguished from the other brothers of the order. In battle or in war, however, they shall employ surcoats and other military coats of red and on which a white cross is sewn as on their standard, so that in such uniformity of signs the identity of souls is clear, and consequently the salvation of persons follows.