The purpose of this study has been twofold: to examine the development and implementation of mortmain law and to assess how far it affected the church's ability to acquire further landed property. The nature of the sources has made it rather easier to accomplish the first of these aims. Although there are lacunae, it has been possible to trace the evolution of licensing procedure and fining practices with tolerable certainty. The thoroughness with which the law was enforced remains a matter of some doubt, but more could be discovered about this. A fuller investigation of surviving escheators' accounts and judicial records would make it possible to test the trends evident in Lincolnshire over a wider geographical area; some regional variation is to be expected and it would be useful to define its limits. Similarly, the extent of successful evasion has only been explored in relation to a few religious houses. The scope for additional work here, again on a wider geographical basis, is clear. However, while further study along these lines may modify the conclusions already reached, it is unlikely to overturn them completely. The picture which has emerged from the records examined so far conforms well enough with what might be expected from political and economic conditions in the country at large, making it improbable that the experience of eastern England was wildly aberrant.