Carmelite Friars also wear on certain occasions a hooded white mantle. The mantle points back to the prophet Elijah, who serves as a biblical inspiration for our life. When Elijah passed on his prophetic spirit to Elisha, the mantle became the visible sign of following in the spirit and power of the prophet Elijah (cf. 2 Kings 2). The original mantle of the Carmelites was striped and completely closed without a hood. The mantle was striped with seven bars, four white and three black. The black bars could have symbolized the burns suffered by the mantle as Elijah ascended to heaven in the fiery chariot. White is the color associated with purity and black that of penance. Additionally, the seven bars could have referred to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit or the seven virtues, three theological and four cardinal. When the Carmelites came to Europe they changed the striped mantle for a completely white one at the Chapter of Montpellier in 1287. Also in 1287, the mantle was opened to show the scapular. The white mantle increasingly became the symbol of Mary’s Immaculate Conception. Armed with the white mantle and the scapular, Carmelites took the lead in defending and promoting the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary.