Definition
In generali passagio (Latin: "in the general passage") is a phrase from medieval English law denoting that a person was absent from the realm because they had departed for the Holy Land as part of a general crusading expedition — traveling with the main body of Crusaders rather than making the journey alone. The term appeared almost exclusively in the law of essoins, where it served as the stated reason for a party's failure to appear in court.
Common Confusion
In generali passagio is occasionally conflated with simplex passagium in casual reading of historical sources, but the distinction was legally operative: traveling with the Crusade implied a collective, state-sanctioned absence that could extend the court's patience differently than a private pilgrimage. Researchers should not treat the two terms as interchangeable. Both fall under the broader category of essoins related to overseas absence, but they were formally distinguished in the medieval essoin framework.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is essentially defunct in modern practice and will appear only in historical sources — primarily medieval plea rolls, Year Books, and early treatises. Researchers encountering it should understand its procedural context: an essoin was a formal excuse for non-appearance, and the category of essoin de malo viae (and related travel essoins) required specification of the nature of the absence. In generali passagio was a recognized and legally significant subspecification because traveling with the Crusade was treated as a more substantial and less voluntary absence than a private pilgrimage, carrying different procedural consequences for the party and the court's handling of the case.
The term is almost never encountered outside of sources predating the 15th century. Researchers working with medieval records, Bracton, or Britton will find it embedded in discussions of essoins alongside simplex passagium. It does not surface in equity, common law pleading after the Tudor period, or any modern procedural context. Its presence in 19th-century legal dictionaries (Black's, Burrill's) is a matter of completeness and historical record rather than practical application.
A navigational note: researchers following the trail of essoins through early common law sources should be aware that the crusading context made these essoins temporally bounded. As the era of organized Crusades ended, the category became obsolete, and later writers treated it as a historical curiosity. Do not expect doctrinal development after the medieval period.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's (1st and 2nd editions) and Burrill's are in full agreement on the core meaning. All three sources define the term as referring to travel with the general body of Crusaders and distinguish it explicitly from simplex passagium, the solo pilgrimage. Burrill's is the most detailed, citing Bracton (fol. 338–339) and Britton (cc. 122–123) directly, which gives researchers a clear path to the primary medieval sources. Black's both editions reproduce substantially the same entry, confirming the term's stable meaning across the 19th-century dictionary tradition.
None of these sources explain the procedural consequences of the distinction in depth — that is, what practical difference it made to a court whether the absent party was traveling in generali passagio versus simplex passagium. For that analysis, researchers must go directly to Bracton's De Legibus et Consuetudinibus Angliae and to Britton, both of which treat the essoin rules in some detail.