diff --git a/library/HTMLPurifier.php b/library/HTMLPurifier.php
index c758b439..3bd32887 100644
--- a/library/HTMLPurifier.php
+++ b/library/HTMLPurifier.php
@@ -91,7 +91,6 @@ class HTMLPurifier
         $this->lexer        = HTMLPurifier_Lexer::create();
         $this->strategy     = new HTMLPurifier_Strategy_Core();
         $this->generator    = new HTMLPurifier_Generator();
-        $this->encoder      = new HTMLPurifier_Encoder();
         
     }
     
@@ -110,7 +109,7 @@ class HTMLPurifier
         $config = $config ? HTMLPurifier_Config::create($config) : $this->config;
         
         $context = new HTMLPurifier_Context();
-        $html = $this->encoder->convertToUTF8($html, $config, $context);
+        $html = HTMLPurifier_Encoder::convertToUTF8($html, $config, $context);
         
         // purified HTML
         $html = 
@@ -127,7 +126,7 @@ class HTMLPurifier
                 $config, $context
             );
         
-        $html = $this->encoder->convertFromUTF8($html, $config, $context);
+        $html = HTMLPurifier_Encoder::convertFromUTF8($html, $config, $context);
         $this->context =& $context;
         return $html;
     }
diff --git a/library/HTMLPurifier/Encoder.php b/library/HTMLPurifier/Encoder.php
index d9cc655c..b818e199 100644
--- a/library/HTMLPurifier/Encoder.php
+++ b/library/HTMLPurifier/Encoder.php
@@ -38,10 +38,18 @@ HTMLPurifier_ConfigSchema::define(
 
 /**
  * A UTF-8 specific character encoder that handles cleaning and transforming.
+ * @note All functions in this class should be static.
  */
 class HTMLPurifier_Encoder
 {
     
+    /**
+     * Constructor throws fatal error if you attempt to instantiate class
+     */
+    function HTMLPurifier_Encoder() {
+        trigger_error('Cannot instantiate encoder, call methods statically', E_USER_ERROR);
+    }
+    
     /**
      * Cleans a UTF-8 string for well-formedness and SGML validity
      * 
@@ -290,6 +298,7 @@ class HTMLPurifier_Encoder
     
     /**
      * Converts a string to UTF-8 based on configuration.
+     * @static
      */
     function convertToUTF8($str, $config, &$context) {
         static $iconv = null;
@@ -305,6 +314,7 @@ class HTMLPurifier_Encoder
     
     /**
      * Converts a string from UTF-8 based on configuration.
+     * @static
      * @note Currently, this is a lossy conversion, with unexpressable
      *       characters being omitted.
      */
diff --git a/library/HTMLPurifier/Lexer.php b/library/HTMLPurifier/Lexer.php
index 122bbb5d..29e92b66 100644
--- a/library/HTMLPurifier/Lexer.php
+++ b/library/HTMLPurifier/Lexer.php
@@ -56,7 +56,6 @@ class HTMLPurifier_Lexer
 {
     
     function HTMLPurifier_Lexer() {
-        $this->_encoder = new HTMLPurifier_Encoder();
         $this->_entity_parser = new HTMLPurifier_EntityParser();
     }
     
@@ -114,8 +113,6 @@ class HTMLPurifier_Lexer
         return $string;
     }
     
-    var $_encoder;
-    
     /**
      * Lexes an HTML string into tokens.
      * 
@@ -216,7 +213,7 @@ class HTMLPurifier_Lexer
         // clean into wellformed UTF-8 string for an SGML context: this has
         // to be done after entity expansion because the entities sometimes
         // represent non-SGML characters (horror, horror!)
-        $html = $this->_encoder->cleanUTF8($html);
+        $html = HTMLPurifier_Encoder::cleanUTF8($html);
         
         return $html;
     }
diff --git a/tests/HTMLPurifier/EncoderTest.php b/tests/HTMLPurifier/EncoderTest.php
index 2e0eae8d..b8437fb2 100644
--- a/tests/HTMLPurifier/EncoderTest.php
+++ b/tests/HTMLPurifier/EncoderTest.php
@@ -8,14 +8,13 @@ class HTMLPurifier_EncoderTest extends UnitTestCase
     var $Encoder;
     
     function setUp() {
-        $this->Encoder = new HTMLPurifier_Encoder();
         $this->_entity_lookup = HTMLPurifier_EntityLookup::instance();
     }
     
     function assertCleanUTF8($string, $expect = null) {
         if ($expect === null) $expect = $string;
-        $this->assertIdentical($this->Encoder->cleanUTF8($string), $expect, 'iconv: %s');
-        $this->assertIdentical($this->Encoder->cleanUTF8($string, true), $expect, 'PHP: %s');
+        $this->assertIdentical(HTMLPurifier_Encoder::cleanUTF8($string), $expect, 'iconv: %s');
+        $this->assertIdentical(HTMLPurifier_Encoder::cleanUTF8($string, true), $expect, 'PHP: %s');
     }
     
     function test_cleanUTF8() {
@@ -35,7 +34,7 @@ class HTMLPurifier_EncoderTest extends UnitTestCase
         
         // UTF-8 means that we don't touch it
         $this->assertIdentical(
-            $this->Encoder->convertToUTF8("\xF6", $config, $context),
+            HTMLPurifier_Encoder::convertToUTF8("\xF6", $config, $context),
             "\xF6" // this is invalid
         );
         $this->assertNoErrors();
@@ -44,14 +43,14 @@ class HTMLPurifier_EncoderTest extends UnitTestCase
         
         // Now it gets converted
         $this->assertIdentical(
-            $this->Encoder->convertToUTF8("\xF6", $config, $context),
+            HTMLPurifier_Encoder::convertToUTF8("\xF6", $config, $context),
             "\xC3\xB6"
         );
         
         $config->set('Test', 'ForceNoIconv', true);
         
         $this->assertIdentical(
-            $this->Encoder->convertToUTF8("\xF6", $config, $context),
+            HTMLPurifier_Encoder::convertToUTF8("\xF6", $config, $context),
             "\xC3\xB6"
         );
         
@@ -63,7 +62,7 @@ class HTMLPurifier_EncoderTest extends UnitTestCase
         
         // UTF-8 means that we don't touch it
         $this->assertIdentical(
-            $this->Encoder->convertFromUTF8("\xC3\xB6", $config, $context),
+            HTMLPurifier_Encoder::convertFromUTF8("\xC3\xB6", $config, $context),
             "\xC3\xB6"
         );
         
@@ -71,14 +70,14 @@ class HTMLPurifier_EncoderTest extends UnitTestCase
         
         // Now it gets converted
         $this->assertIdentical(
-            $this->Encoder->convertFromUTF8("\xC3\xB6", $config, $context),
+            HTMLPurifier_Encoder::convertFromUTF8("\xC3\xB6", $config, $context),
             "\xF6"
         );
         
         $config->set('Test', 'ForceNoIconv', true);
         
         $this->assertIdentical(
-            $this->Encoder->convertFromUTF8("\xC3\xB6", $config, $context),
+            HTMLPurifier_Encoder::convertFromUTF8("\xC3\xB6", $config, $context),
             "\xF6"
         );