diff --git a/core/src/main/java/org/springframework/ws/soap/axiom/AxiomHandler.java b/core/src/main/java/org/springframework/ws/soap/axiom/AxiomHandler.java
index 784f8f8d..2358a842 100644
--- a/core/src/main/java/org/springframework/ws/soap/axiom/AxiomHandler.java
+++ b/core/src/main/java/org/springframework/ws/soap/axiom/AxiomHandler.java
@@ -147,13 +147,20 @@ class AxiomHandler implements ContentHandler, LexicalHandler {
     }
 
     public void startEntity(String name) throws SAXException {
-        charactersType = XMLStreamConstants.ENTITY_REFERENCE;
+        if (!isPredefinedEntityReference(name)) {
+            charactersType = XMLStreamConstants.ENTITY_REFERENCE;
+        }
     }
 
     public void endEntity(String name) throws SAXException {
         charactersType = XMLStreamConstants.CHARACTERS;
     }
 
+    private boolean isPredefinedEntityReference(String name) {
+        return "lt".equals(name) || "gt".equals(name) || "amp".equals(name) || "quot".equals(name) ||
+                "apos".equals(name);
+    }
+
     /*
     * Unsupported
     */
diff --git a/core/src/test/java/org/springframework/ws/soap/axiom/AxiomHandlerTest.java b/core/src/test/java/org/springframework/ws/soap/axiom/AxiomHandlerTest.java
index bad5a63d..97ce8bff 100644
--- a/core/src/test/java/org/springframework/ws/soap/axiom/AxiomHandlerTest.java
+++ b/core/src/test/java/org/springframework/ws/soap/axiom/AxiomHandlerTest.java
@@ -31,17 +31,21 @@ import org.xml.sax.helpers.XMLReaderFactory;
 
 public class AxiomHandlerTest extends XMLTestCase {
 
-    private static final String XML_1 = "<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>" + "<?pi content?>" +
-            "<root xmlns='namespace'>" +
-            "<prefix:child xmlns:prefix='namespace2' xmlns:prefix2='namespace3' prefix2:attr='value'>content</prefix:child>" +
-            "</root>";
+    private static final String XML_1 =
+            "<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>" + "<?pi content?>" + "<root xmlns='namespace'>" +
+                    "<prefix:child xmlns:prefix='namespace2' xmlns:prefix2='namespace3' prefix2:attr='value'>content</prefix:child>" +
+                    "</root>";
 
-    private static final String XML_2_EXPECTED = "<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>" + "<root xmlns='namespace'>" +
-            "<child xmlns='namespace2' />" + "</root>";
+    private static final String XML_2_EXPECTED =
+            "<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>" + "<root xmlns='namespace'>" + "<child xmlns='namespace2' />" +
+                    "</root>";
 
     private static final String XML_2_SNIPPET =
             "<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>" + "<child xmlns='namespace2' />";
 
+    private static final String XML_3_ENTITY =
+            "<predefined-entity-reference>&lt;&gt;&amp;&quot;&apos;</predefined-entity-reference>";
+
     private AxiomHandler handler;
 
     private OMDocument result;
@@ -87,4 +91,14 @@ public class AxiomHandlerTest extends XMLTestCase {
         result.serialize(bos);
         assertXMLEqual("Invalid result", XML_2_EXPECTED, bos.toString("UTF-8"));
     }
+
+    public void testContentHandlerPredefinedEntityReference() throws Exception {
+        handler = new AxiomHandler(result, factory);
+        xmlReader.setContentHandler(handler);
+        xmlReader.setProperty("http://xml.org/sax/properties/lexical-handler", handler);
+        xmlReader.parse(new InputSource(new StringReader(XML_3_ENTITY)));
+        ByteArrayOutputStream bos = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
+        result.serialize(bos);
+        assertXMLEqual("Invalid result", XML_3_ENTITY, bos.toString("UTF-8"));
+    }
 }
\ No newline at end of file