Previously this used to work : -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- <?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?> <!DOCTYPE hibernate-mapping SYSTEM "http://hibernate.sourceforge.net/hibernate-mapping-3.0.dtd" [<!ENTITY baseEntity SYSTEM "classpath://com/somecompany/model/BaseEntity.hbm.xmlf">]> <hibernate-mapping> <class name="com.somecompany.user.User" table="user"> &baseEntity; </class> </hibernate-mapping> where BaseEntity.hbm.xmlf had, <id column="id" name="id" type="java.lang.Long"> <generator class="increment"/> </id> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now it complains and says that there is no <id> tag in the mapping file I