A term that came to be applied to a large-scale crusading expedition in the later Middle Ages.
In medieval Latin the word passagium meant “passing over,” “crossing over,” or “transit”; it could also mean a journey, hence a pilgrimage, and so, from the early twelfth century, crusade. A passagium, naturally, could imply a sea journey, as in the commercial vocabulary of the Italian maritime cities. Normally, there were two voyages (Lat. passagia) per year to Outremer during Frankish rule. These were the spring passage or Easter passage (Lat. passagium vernale or passagium paschae) and the summer journey (Lat. passagium aestivale).
Passagium continued to be used as an equivalent term for crusade, but the term on its own without qualification was no longer deemed precise enough to meet the needs of crusade planners. That is why the distinction between passag-ium generale (general passage) and passagium particulare (particular passage) came into being, a distinction that allowed crusade planners to specify the sort of crusade that was needed in particular circumstances. This refinement reflects a growing sophistication about the practical conditions necessary for success, especially in matters of logistics and finance. Scholars are not agreed about exactly when the distinction between these two types of crusading passagia emerged. At the earliest, it would have appeared around the time of the Second Council of Lyons (1274); at the latest during the preparation for the Hospitallers’ Crusade of 1309.
Essentially, the passagium generale now stood for the exceedingly costly, increasingly unrealistic, old-style, grand international crusading expedition, with large numbers of well-trained and well-equipped troops, yet also possibly including less-well-trained and less-well-equipped recruits who answered the papal summons. The idea of mounting a traditional passagium generale still prevailed officially at the Second Council of Lyons. That was what Pope Gregory X originally intended. More and more, however, the passagium generale became the hoped-for second, or culminating, phase of a projected two-pronged assault. For many crusade theorists and enthusiasts, however, it remained the model of what a “true” crusade should be, although it was becoming no more than a utopian aspiration.
-Gary Dickson
See also: Passagium Particulare
Bibliography
Ducange, Charles du Fresne, Glossarium mediae et infimae latinitatis, 2d ed., 10 vols. (Niort: Favre, 1883-1887).
Housley, Norman, The Avignon Papacy and the Crusades, 1305-1378 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1986).
Schein, Sylvia, Fideles Crucis: The Papacy, the West, and the Recovery of the Holy Land, 1274-1314 (Oxford: Clarendon, 1991).
World History
