diff --git a/secretary.py b/secretary.py
index 8041a5e..272c43c 100644
--- a/secretary.py
+++ b/secretary.py
@@ -26,6 +26,7 @@ from os import path
 from mimetypes import guess_type, guess_extension
 from uuid import uuid4
 from xml.dom.minidom import parseString
+from xml.parsers.expat import ExpatError
 from jinja2 import Environment, Undefined
 
 # Test python versions and normalize calls to basestring, unicode, etc.
@@ -313,18 +314,16 @@ class Renderer(object):
         and unescapes HTML codes for >, <, & and "
         """
         unescape_rules = {
-            r'(?is)({[{|%].*)(<.?text:s.*?>)(.*[%|}]})': r'\1\3',
-
             r'(?is)({[{|%].*)(&gt;)(.*[%|}]})': r'\1>\3',
             r'(?is)({[{|%].*)(&lt;)(.*[%|}]})': r'\1<\3',
             r'(?is)({[{|%].*)(&amp;)(.*[%|}]})': r'\1&\3',
             r'(?is)({[{|%].*)(&quot;)(.*[%|}]})': r'\1"\3'
         }
 
-        for p, r in unescape_rules.items():
-            count = None
-            while count != 0:
-                xml_text, count = re.subn(p, r, xml_text)
+        for regexp, replacement in unescape_rules.items():
+            subs_made = True
+            while subs_made:
+                xml_text, subs_made = re.subn(regexp, replacement, xml_text)
 
         return xml_text
 
@@ -451,17 +450,21 @@ class Renderer(object):
         try:
             self.template_images = dict()
             self._prepare_template_tags(xml_document)
-            template_string = Renderer._unescape_entities(xml_document.toxml())
+            template_string = self._unescape_entities(xml_document.toxml())
             jinja_template = self.environment.from_string(template_string)
 
             result = jinja_template.render(**kwargs)
-            result = Renderer._encode_escape_chars(result)
+            result = self._encode_escape_chars(result)
 
             final_xml = parseString(result.encode('ascii', 'xmlcharrefreplace'))
             if self.template_images:
                 self.replace_images(final_xml)
 
             return final_xml
+        except ExpatError as e:
+            near = result.split('\n')[e.lineno -1][e.offset-50:e.offset+50]
+            raise ExpatError('ExpatError at line %d, column %d\nNear of: "[...]%s[...]"' % \
+                          (e.lineno, e.offset, near))
         except:
             self.log.error('Error rendering template:\n%s',
                            xml_document.toprettyxml(), exc_info=True)