Omne Datum Optimum granted the Templars a range of extraordinary privileges. The pope praised the knights who had joined the order for transforming themselves from “children of wrath” into listeners who have abandoned worldly pomp and personal possessions.17 He then confirmed Knights of the Temple in their right to “always bear on your chest the sign of the life-giving cross”—a symbol that, when emblazoned in red on the Templar knights’ white mantles, came to be an iconic uniform.
