Chapter IV: On Injuries of Words in the Goods of Reputation and Honor

417. Notions. - Good reputation properly is the common estimation concerning someone's excellence; nevertheless the estimation of individuals concurs toward it as part of the common opinion by which reputation of another's excellence is constituted; - but honor is the external testimony of this excellence. These two can be injured by words, whether internal and mental, namely, by rash judgment and suspicion, or external and vocal or by equivalent signs: reputation, namely, by detraction, honor by contumely; to which several other sins can be reduced. We are about to explain these in three articles, to which a fourth is to be added: concerning the restitution of reputation and honor.