diff --git a/core/matchers/build.gradle b/core/matchers/build.gradle
index 85c9f31df..de89f4587 100644
--- a/core/matchers/build.gradle
+++ b/core/matchers/build.gradle
@@ -17,7 +17,6 @@ dependencies {
   implementation 'javax.mail:mail:1.5.0-b01'
   implementation 'org.apache.tika:tika-core'
   implementation 'io.github.java-diff-utils:java-diff-utils:4.12'
-  implementation 'xerces:xercesImpl:2.12.2'
   implementation 'org.atteo:evo-inflector:1.3'
   implementation 'com.github.ajalt:mordant:1.2.1'
   implementation 'com.github.zafarkhaja:java-semver:0.9.0'
diff --git a/core/matchers/src/main/kotlin/au/com/dius/pact/core/matchers/XmlContentMatcher.kt b/core/matchers/src/main/kotlin/au/com/dius/pact/core/matchers/XmlContentMatcher.kt
index 5a3d432f2..dde42f57a 100755
--- a/core/matchers/src/main/kotlin/au/com/dius/pact/core/matchers/XmlContentMatcher.kt
+++ b/core/matchers/src/main/kotlin/au/com/dius/pact/core/matchers/XmlContentMatcher.kt
@@ -6,7 +6,6 @@ import au.com.dius.pact.core.support.Result
 import au.com.dius.pact.core.support.zipAll
 import io.pact.plugins.jvm.core.InteractionContents
 import io.github.oshai.kotlinlogging.KLogging
-import org.apache.xerces.dom.TextImpl
 import org.w3c.dom.NamedNodeMap
 import org.w3c.dom.Node
 import org.w3c.dom.Node.CDATA_SECTION_NODE
@@ -52,18 +51,18 @@ object XmlContentMatcher : ContentMatcher, KLogging() {
   }
 
   fun parse(xmlData: String): Node {
+    val dbFactory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance()
+    if (System.getProperty("pact.matching.xml.validating") == "false") {
+      dbFactory.isValidating = false
+      dbFactory.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/nonvalidating/load-dtd-grammar", false)
+      dbFactory.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/nonvalidating/load-external-dtd", false)
+    }
+    if (System.getProperty("pact.matching.xml.namespace-aware") != "false") {
+      dbFactory.isNamespaceAware = true
+    }
     return if (xmlData.isEmpty()) {
-      TextImpl()
+      dbFactory.newDocumentBuilder().newDocument()
     } else {
-      val dbFactory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance()
-      if (System.getProperty("pact.matching.xml.validating") == "false") {
-        dbFactory.isValidating = false
-        dbFactory.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/nonvalidating/load-dtd-grammar", false)
-        dbFactory.setFeature("http://apache.org/xml/features/nonvalidating/load-external-dtd", false)
-      }
-      if (System.getProperty("pact.matching.xml.namespace-aware") != "false") {
-        dbFactory.isNamespaceAware = true
-      }
       val dBuilder = dbFactory.newDocumentBuilder()
       val xmlInput = InputSource(StringReader(xmlData))
       val doc = dBuilder.parse(xmlInput)