CHRENECRUDA, a term occurring in writers of the middle ages, and expressing a custom of those times; but its precise signification is somewhat doubtful. It is mentioned in the Lex Salica, tit. 61, that he who kills a man, and has not wherewithal to satisfy the law or pay the fine,
must make oath that he has delivered up every thing he was possessed of, the truth of which deposition must be confirmed by the oaths of twelve other persons. Then he invites his next relations by the father's side to pay the remainder of the fine, having first made over to them all his effects, according to a prescribed form, which may be briefly described. He goes into his house, and taking in his hand a small quantity of dust from each of the four corners, he returns to the door, and, with his face turned inwards, throws the dust with his left hand over his shoulders upon his nearest of kin; upon which he strips to his shirt, and coming out with a pole in his hand, jumps over the hedge. When this ceremony has been performed, his relations, whether one or more, are obliged to pay off the composition for the murder; and if these are not able to pay, iterum super illum chrenecruda, qui pauperior est, jactat, et ille totam legem componit. Hence it appears, that chrenecruda jactare is the same with throwing the dust gathered from the four corners of the house. Goldastus and Spelman translate it viridis herba, green grass, from the German gruen kraut, or from the Dutch groen, green, and gruid, grass. But Wendelinus is of a contrary opinion, thinking that by this word is denoted purificationis approbatio, from chrein, pure, chaste, clean; and keuren, to prove; so that, according to him, it refers to the oaths of the twelve jurors. Be this as it may, however, King Childebert by a decree reformed the law of chrenecruda, both because it savoured of Pagan ceremonies, and because several persons were thereby obliged to make over all their effects: De chrenecruda lex quam paganorum tempore obserebant, deinceps nunquam valeat, quia per ipsam cecidit multorum potestas.