"One may have a better sense of Marie de France from her very first lay, or rather, the "Prologue" she uses to prepare her readers for what is to come.The first line dictates “Whoever has received knowledge/ and eloquence in speech from God/ should not be silent or secretive/ but demonstrate it willingly”  Marie de France, in so many words, credits her literary skills to God and is therefore allowed to write the lays without her patron’s permission (her patron likely being Henry II of England).