Causa Causata

The cause which owes its existence to the “causa causans”; the secondary cause.

⁂ The vera causa is (a) the immediate predecessor of an effect; (b) a cause verifiable by independent evidence. (Mill.)

In theology God is the causa causans, and creation the causa causāta. The presence of the sun above the horizon is the vera causa of daylight, and his withdrawal below the horizon is the vera causa of night.

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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.