diff --git a/bootstrap.bat b/bootstrap.bat
index 218554c2b..0975050ea 100755
--- a/bootstrap.bat
+++ b/bootstrap.bat
@@ -38,7 +38,6 @@ if not "%OS%" == "Windows_NT" if exist bootstrap\nul deltree/y bootstrap
 if     "%OS%" == "Windows_NT" if exist build\nul rmdir/s/q build
 if not "%OS%" == "Windows_NT" if exist build\nul deltree/y build
 
-SET LOCALCLASSPATH=lib\xercesImpl.jar;lib\xml-apis.jar
 for %%i in (lib\optional\*.jar) do call src\script\lcp.bat %%i
 if exist "%JAVA_HOME%\lib\tools.jar" call src\script\lcp.bat %JAVA_HOME%\lib\tools.jar
 if exist "%JAVA_HOME%\lib\classes.zip" call src\script\lcp.bat %JAVA_HOME%\lib\classes.zip
@@ -46,7 +45,7 @@ if exist "%JAVA_HOME%\lib\classes.zip" call src\script\lcp.bat %JAVA_HOME%\lib\c
 set TOOLS=src\main\org\apache\tools
 set CLASSDIR=build\classes
 
-SET CLASSPATH=%LOCALCLASSPATH%;%CLASSDIR%;src\main;%CLASSPATH%
+SET CLASSPATH=%CLASSDIR%;src\main;%CLASSPATH%
 
 echo JAVA_HOME=%JAVA_HOME%
 echo JAVA=%JAVA%
@@ -132,6 +131,5 @@ set ANT_HOME=%OLDANTHOME%
 set OLDJAVA=
 set OLDJAVAC=
 set BOOTOLDCLASSPATH=
-set LOCALCLASSPATH=
 set OLDANTHOME=
 set TOOLS=
diff --git a/bootstrap.sh b/bootstrap.sh
index 22e550ddc..60b6ece03 100755
--- a/bootstrap.sh
+++ b/bootstrap.sh
@@ -97,8 +97,6 @@ if [ -d "build" ] ; then
   rm -r build
 fi
 
-CLASSPATH=lib/xercesImpl.jar:lib/xml-apis.jar:${CLASSPATH}
-
 DIRLIBS=lib/optional/*.jar
 for i in ${DIRLIBS}
 do
@@ -166,4 +164,4 @@ echo ... Cleaning Up Build Directories
 rm -rf ${CLASSDIR}
 rm -rf bin
 
-echo ... Done Bootstrapping Ant Distribution
\ No newline at end of file
+echo ... Done Bootstrapping Ant Distribution
diff --git a/build.xml b/build.xml
index a2b934c54..ca80ee986 100644
--- a/build.xml
+++ b/build.xml
@@ -730,7 +730,7 @@
       </metainf>
       <manifest>
         <attribute name="Class-Path"
-          value="ant.jar xml-apis.jar xercesImpl.jar xalan.jar"/>
+          value="ant.jar xalan.jar"/>
       </manifest>
     </jar>
 
diff --git a/docs/manual/install.html b/docs/manual/install.html
index 2f48ed222..84216f01a 100644
--- a/docs/manual/install.html
+++ b/docs/manual/install.html
@@ -183,25 +183,6 @@ Windows NT-platforms, OS/2 Warp, Novell Netware 6, OpenVMS and MacOS X.
 The platforms used most for development are, in no particular order,
 Linux, MacOS X, Windows XP and Unix; these are therefore that platforms
 that tend to work best. As of Ant1.7, Windows 9x is no longer supported.
-<p>
-To build and use Ant, you must have a JAXP-compliant XML parser installed and
-available on your classpath, such as Xerces.</p>
-<p>
-The binary distribution of Ant includes the latest version of the
-<a href="http://xml.apache.org/xerces2-j/index.html" target="_top">Apache Xerces2</a> XML parser.
-Please see
-<a href="http://java.sun.com/xml/" target="_top">http://java.sun.com/xml/</a>
-for more information about JAXP.
-If you wish to use a different JAXP-compliant parser, you should remove
-<code>xercesImpl.jar</code> and <code>xml-apis.jar</code>
-from Ant's <code>lib</code> directory.
-<p>
-You can then either put the JARs of your preferred parser into Ant's
-<code>lib</code> directory or put the jars on the system classpath.
-Some parts of Ant will fail if you use an old parser, especially one
-that is not namespace-aware. In particular, avoid the Crimson parser.</p>
-
-<p>Tip: "ant -diagnostics" will list the XML parser used and its location.</p>
 
 <p>
 For the current version of Ant, you will also need a JDK installed on
diff --git a/docs/manual/platform.html b/docs/manual/platform.html
index 5c4893c3a..a785992d2 100644
--- a/docs/manual/platform.html
+++ b/docs/manual/platform.html
@@ -172,15 +172,13 @@ it is treated like any other Unix.
 <p>To give the same level of sophisticated control as Ant's startup scripts on other platforms, it was decided to make the main ant startup on NetWare be via a Perl Script, "runant.pl".  This is found in the bin directory (for instance - bootstrap\bin or dist\bin).</p>
 
 <p>One important item of note is that you need to set up the following to run ant:</p>
-<ul><li><code>CLASSPATH</code> - put ant.jar, xercesImpl.jar, xml-apis.jar and any other needed jars on the system classpath.</li>
+<ul><li><code>CLASSPATH</code> - put ant.jar and any other needed jars on the system classpath.</li>
    <li><code>ANT_OPTS</code> - On NetWare, <code>ANT_OPTS</code> needs to include a parameter of the form, <nobr>"-envCWD=<code>ANT_HOME</code>"</nobr>, with <code>ANT_HOME</code> being the fully expanded location of Ant, <b>not</b> an environment variable.  This is due to the fact that the NetWare System Console has no notion of a current working directory.</li>
 </ul>
 <p>It is suggested that you create up an ant.ncf that sets up these parameters, and calls <code>perl ANT_HOME/dist/bin/runant.pl</code></p>
 <p>The following is an example of such an NCF file(assuming ant is installed in <nobr>'sys:/apache-ant/'):</nobr></p>
 <code>
    &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;envset CLASSPATH=SYS:/apache-ant/bootstrap/lib/ant.jar<br>
-   &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;envset CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH;SYS:/apache-ant/lib/xercesImpl.jar <br>
-   &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;envset CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH;SYS:/apache-ant/lib/xml-apis.jar <br>
    &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;envset CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH;SYS:/apache-ant/lib/optional/junit.jar <br>
    &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;envset CLASSPATH=$CLASSPATH;SYS:/apache-ant/bootstrap/lib/optional.jar <br>
 <br>
diff --git a/fetch.xml b/fetch.xml
index 0febfa399..cde04b719 100644
--- a/fetch.xml
+++ b/fetch.xml
@@ -158,13 +158,6 @@ Set -Ddest=LOCATION on the command line
    we like to get the more recent artifacts than are in the repo at the time of writing (2006-12-21)
    -->
 
-  <target name="xerces"
-      description="load an updated version of Xerces"
-      depends="init">
-    <f2 project="xerces" archive="xercesImpl"/>
-    <f2 project="xerces" archive="xml-apis" />
-  </target>
-
   <target name="networking"
     description="load networking libraries (commons-net; jsch)"
     depends="init">
diff --git a/src/etc/ant-bin.wxs b/src/etc/ant-bin.wxs
index f050aa15c..bac5c9514 100644
--- a/src/etc/ant-bin.wxs
+++ b/src/etc/ant-bin.wxs
@@ -59,8 +59,6 @@
           <File DiskId="1" Id="file24" Name="ant.jar" Vital="yes" src="$(var.dist.dir)/lib\ant.jar" />
           <File DiskId="1" Id="file25" Name="LIBRAR_1.PRO" LongName="libraries.properties" Vital="yes" src="$(var.dist.dir)/lib\libraries.properties" />
           <File DiskId="1" Id="file26" Name="README" Vital="yes" src="$(var.dist.dir)/lib\README" />
-          <File DiskId="1" Id="file27" Name="XERCES_1.JAR" LongName="xercesImpl.jar" Vital="yes" src="$(var.dist.dir)/lib\xercesImpl.jar" />
-          <File DiskId="1" Id="file28" Name="xml-apis.jar" Vital="yes" src="$(var.dist.dir)/lib\xml-apis.jar" />
         </Component>
       </Directory>
       <Directory Id="directory1" Name="bin">
@@ -458,4 +456,4 @@
       </Directory>
     </DirectoryRef>
   </Fragment>
-</Wix>
\ No newline at end of file
+</Wix>
diff --git a/src/etc/poms/ant-nodeps/pom.xml b/src/etc/poms/ant-nodeps/pom.xml
index 0485662d3..f0cf5dd49 100644
--- a/src/etc/poms/ant-nodeps/pom.xml
+++ b/src/etc/poms/ant-nodeps/pom.xml
@@ -41,28 +41,6 @@
       <version>1.8.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
       <scope>compile</scope>
     </dependency>
-    <dependency>
-      <!-- the implementation jar of the xerces jar will be used by ant to parse
-      XML files, particularly the build files, if the JDK does not provide a parser
-      xercesImpl.jar is provided with ant -->
-      <groupId>xerces</groupId>
-      <artifactId>xercesImpl</artifactId>
-      <version>2.9.0</version>
-      <optional>true</optional>
-      <scope>runtime</scope>
-    </dependency>
-    <dependency>
-      <!-- xml-apis contains the org.w3c.dom package 
-        since ant is using DOM APIS to parse the XML build file and do other XML related activities
-        xml-apis is a compile time dependency
-        a version of xml-apis.jar is delivered with ant -->
-      <groupId>xml-apis</groupId>
-      <artifactId>xml-apis</artifactId>
-      <version>1.3.04</version>
-      <optional>true</optional>
-      <scope>compile</scope>
-    </dependency>
-
   </dependencies>
   <build>
     <plugins>
diff --git a/src/etc/poms/ant-trax/pom.xml b/src/etc/poms/ant-trax/pom.xml
index 7d52dc081..df96ddfee 100644
--- a/src/etc/poms/ant-trax/pom.xml
+++ b/src/etc/poms/ant-trax/pom.xml
@@ -41,27 +41,6 @@
       <version>1.8.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
       <scope>compile</scope>
     </dependency>
-    <dependency>
-      <!-- the implementation jar of the xerces jar will be used by ant to parse
-      XML files, particularly the build files, if the JDK does not provide a parser
-      xercesImpl.jar is provided with ant -->
-      <groupId>xerces</groupId>
-      <artifactId>xercesImpl</artifactId>
-      <version>2.9.0</version>
-      <optional>true</optional>
-      <scope>runtime</scope>
-    </dependency>
-    <dependency>
-      <!-- xml-apis contains the org.w3c.dom package 
-        since ant is using DOM APIS to parse the XML build file and do other XML related activities
-        xml-apis is a compile time dependency
-        a version of xml-apis.jar is delivered with ant -->
-      <groupId>xml-apis</groupId>
-      <artifactId>xml-apis</artifactId>
-      <version>1.3.04</version>
-      <optional>true</optional>
-      <scope>compile</scope>
-    </dependency>
     <dependency>
       <!-- xalan contains a TRAX compliant implementation -->
       <groupId>xalan</groupId>
diff --git a/src/etc/poms/ant/pom.xml b/src/etc/poms/ant/pom.xml
index 95f3db9ec..0402e999f 100644
--- a/src/etc/poms/ant/pom.xml
+++ b/src/etc/poms/ant/pom.xml
@@ -42,27 +42,6 @@
       <version>1.8.0-SNAPSHOT</version>
       <scope>compile</scope>
     </dependency>
-    <dependency>
-      <!-- the implementation jar of the xerces jar will be used by ant to parse
-      XML files, particularly the build files, if the JDK does not provide a parser
-        xercesImpl.jar is provided with ant -->
-      <groupId>xerces</groupId>
-      <artifactId>xercesImpl</artifactId>
-      <version>2.9.0</version>
-      <optional>true</optional>
-      <scope>runtime</scope>
-    </dependency>
-    <dependency>
-      <!-- xml-apis contains the org.w3c.dom package 
-      since ant is using DOM APIS to parse the XML build file and do other XML related activities
-      xml-apis is a compile time dependency
-      a version of xml-apis.jar is delivered with ant -->
-      <groupId>xml-apis</groupId>
-      <artifactId>xml-apis</artifactId>
-      <version>1.3.04</version>
-      <optional>true</optional>
-      <scope>compile</scope>
-    </dependency>
   </dependencies>
   <build>
     <filters>