diff --git a/src/java/com/samskivert/velocity/VelocityTestCase.java b/src/java/com/samskivert/velocity/VelocityTestCase.java
index 5434571a..93d65ae0 100644
--- a/src/java/com/samskivert/velocity/VelocityTestCase.java
+++ b/src/java/com/samskivert/velocity/VelocityTestCase.java
@@ -21,15 +21,18 @@
 package com.samskivert.velocity;
 
 import java.io.InputStream;
+import java.io.PrintWriter;
 import java.io.StringWriter;
 
-import junit.framework.Test;
 import junit.framework.TestCase;
 
 import org.apache.commons.io.IOUtils;
 
 import org.apache.velocity.VelocityContext;
 import org.apache.velocity.app.VelocityEngine;
+import org.apache.velocity.runtime.RuntimeServices;
+import org.apache.velocity.runtime.log.LogChute;
+import org.apache.velocity.runtime.resource.loader.ClasspathResourceLoader;
 
 /**
  * An abstract base class for easily testing Velocity templates.
@@ -41,16 +44,19 @@ public abstract class VelocityTestCase extends TestCase
         super(name);
     }
 
-    protected VelocityTestCase ()
-    {
-        this(VelocityTestCase.class.getName());
-    }
-
     @Override // from TestCase
     protected void setUp ()
     {
         try {
-            _engine = VelocityUtil.createEngine();
+            _engine = new VelocityEngine();
+            _engine.setProperty(VelocityEngine.VM_LIBRARY, "");
+            _engine.setProperty(VelocityEngine.RESOURCE_LOADER, "classpath");
+            _engine.setProperty(
+                "classpath." + VelocityEngine.RESOURCE_LOADER + ".class",
+                ClasspathResourceLoader.class.getName());
+            _engine.setProperty(VelocityEngine.RUNTIME_LOG_LOGSYSTEM, _logger);
+            _engine.init();
+
         } catch (Exception e) {
             fail("Velocity initialization failed " + e);
         }
@@ -59,16 +65,42 @@ public abstract class VelocityTestCase extends TestCase
     @Override // from TestCase
     protected void runTest ()
     {
+        // first simply evaluate all of the templates
         for (String template : getTemplates()) {
             try {
-                runTest(template);
+                evaluateTemplate(template);
+            } catch (Exception e) {
+                fail("Failed to process " + template + ": " + e);
+            }
+        }
+
+        // then try to actually merge them with a context
+        for (String template : getTemplates()) {
+            try {
+                mergeTemplate(template);
             } catch (Exception e) {
                 fail("Failed to process " + template + ": " + e);
             }
         }
     }
 
-    protected void runTest (String template)
+    protected void evaluateTemplate (String template)
+        throws Exception
+    {
+        InputStream tempin = 
+            getClass().getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream(template);
+        if (tempin == null) {
+            fail("Missing template '" + template + "'.");
+        }
+
+        // parse the template
+        if (!_engine.evaluate(new VelocityContext(), new StringWriter(),
+                              template, tempin)) {
+            fail("Template parsing failed '" + template + "'.");
+        }
+    }
+
+    protected void mergeTemplate (String template)
         throws Exception
     {
         // first load our golden output
@@ -76,21 +108,28 @@ public abstract class VelocityTestCase extends TestCase
         InputStream goldin =
             getClass().getClassLoader().getResourceAsStream(goldpath);
         if (goldin == null) {
-            fail("Missing golden file for " + template +
-                 " [path=" + goldpath + "].");
+            // if there is no golden template, we don't test this file
+            return;
         }
         String goldtext = IOUtils.toString(goldin);
 
+        // clear out any previous logging output
+        _logbuf.getBuffer().setLength(0);
+
         // now generate the test output
         VelocityContext context = new VelocityContext();
         populateContext(template, context);
         StringWriter writer = new StringWriter();
         _engine.mergeTemplate(template, context, writer);
 
-        // and compare the two
-        assertEquals("Template output incorrect [template=" + template +
-                     ", golden=" + goldpath + "].",
-                     goldtext, writer.toString());
+        // now compare the two
+        String output = "Template output incorrect [template=" + template +
+            ", golden=" + goldpath + "].";
+        String logout = _logbuf.toString();
+        if (logout.length() > 0) {
+            output = output + "\n" + logout;
+        }
+        assertEquals(output, goldtext, writer.toString());
     }
 
     /**
@@ -118,5 +157,36 @@ public abstract class VelocityTestCase extends TestCase
         return template + ".test";
     }
 
+    /** Accumulates logging to a buffer for later reporting. */
+    protected LogChute _logger = new LogChute() {
+        public void init (RuntimeServices rs) throws Exception {
+            // nothing doing
+        }
+        public void log (int level, String message) {
+            switch (level) {
+            case ERROR_ID:
+            case WARN_ID:
+                _logout.println(message);
+                break;
+            default:
+            case INFO_ID:
+            case DEBUG_ID:
+                // velocity insists on sending info and debug messages even
+                // though isLevelEnabled() returns false
+                break;
+            }
+        }
+        public void log (int level, String message, Throwable t) {
+            log(level, message);
+            t.printStackTrace(_logout);
+        }
+        public boolean isLevelEnabled (int level) {
+            return (level == WARN_ID || level == ERROR_ID);
+        }
+    };
+
     protected VelocityEngine _engine;
+
+    protected StringWriter _logbuf = new StringWriter();
+    protected PrintWriter _logout = new PrintWriter(_logbuf);
 }