Eu tenho um erro de análise de xml que não consigo rastrear. O erro aparece quando o tomcat tenta iniciar um aplicativo da web Spring 3.

Aqui está o rastreamento completo da pilha, como visto nos logs do servidor:

org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.initWebApplicationContext Context initialization failed
 org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanDefinitionStoreException: Line 4 in XML document from ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml] is invalid; nested exception is org.xml.sax.SAXParseException: L'élément racine de document "beans" doit correspondre à la racine DOCTYPE "null".
org.xml.sax.SAXParseException; lineNumber: 4; columnNumber: 134; L'élément racine de document "beans" doit correspondre à la racine DOCTYPE "null".
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.util.ErrorHandlerWrapper.createSAXParseException(ErrorHandlerWrapper.java:203)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.util.ErrorHandlerWrapper.error(ErrorHandlerWrapper.java:134)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLErrorReporter.reportError(XMLErrorReporter.java:437)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLErrorReporter.reportError(XMLErrorReporter.java:368)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLErrorReporter.reportError(XMLErrorReporter.java:325)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.dtd.XMLDTDValidator.rootElementSpecified(XMLDTDValidator.java:1599)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.dtd.XMLDTDValidator.handleStartElement(XMLDTDValidator.java:1877)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.dtd.XMLDTDValidator.startElement(XMLDTDValidator.java:742)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanStartElement(XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.java:1363)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentScannerImpl$ContentDriver.scanRootElementHook(XMLDocumentScannerImpl.java:1292)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl$FragmentContentDriver.next(XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.java:3138)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentScannerImpl$PrologDriver.next(XMLDocumentScannerImpl.java:880)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentScannerImpl.next(XMLDocumentScannerImpl.java:606)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.impl.XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.scanDocument(XMLDocumentFragmentScannerImpl.java:510)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(XML11Configuration.java:848)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XML11Configuration.parse(XML11Configuration.java:777)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.XMLParser.parse(XMLParser.java:141)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.parsers.DOMParser.parse(DOMParser.java:243)
    at com.sun.org.apache.xerces.internal.jaxp.DocumentBuilderImpl.parse(DocumentBuilderImpl.java:348)
    at javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder.parse(DocumentBuilder.java:121)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.xml.XmlBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlBeanDefinitionReader.java:161)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:125)
    at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.loadBeanDefinitions(AbstractBeanDefinitionReader.java:141)
    at org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlWebApplicationContext.java:126)
    at org.springframework.web.context.support.XmlWebApplicationContext.loadBeanDefinitions(XmlWebApplicationContext.java:94)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.refreshBeanFactory(AbstractRefreshableApplicationContext.java:89)
    at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:268)
    at org.springframework.web.context.support.AbstractRefreshableWebApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractRefreshableWebApplicationContext.java:134)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.createWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:230)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.initWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:156)
    at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener.contextInitialized(ContextLoaderListener.java:48)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:4728)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5166)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:725)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:701)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:717)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.manageApp(HostConfig.java:1618)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:497)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.modeler.BaseModelMBean.invoke(BaseModelMBean.java:300)
    at com.sun.jmx.interceptor.DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.invoke(DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.java:819)
    at com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.JmxMBeanServer.invoke(JmxMBeanServer.java:801)
    at org.apache.catalina.mbeans.MBeanFactory.createStandardContext(MBeanFactory.java:463)
    at org.apache.catalina.mbeans.MBeanFactory.createStandardContext(MBeanFactory.java:413)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:497)
    at org.apache.tomcat.util.modeler.BaseModelMBean.invoke(BaseModelMBean.java:300)
    at com.sun.jmx.interceptor.DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.invoke(DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.java:819)
    at com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.JmxMBeanServer.invoke(JmxMBeanServer.java:801)
    at javax.management.remote.rmi.RMIConnectionImpl.doOperation(RMIConnectionImpl.java:1466)
    at javax.management.remote.rmi.RMIConnectionImpl.access$300(RMIConnectionImpl.java:76)
    at javax.management.remote.rmi.RMIConnectionImpl$PrivilegedOperation.run(RMIConnectionImpl.java:1307)
    at javax.management.remote.rmi.RMIConnectionImpl.doPrivilegedOperation(RMIConnectionImpl.java:1399)
    at javax.management.remote.rmi.RMIConnectionImpl.invoke(RMIConnectionImpl.java:828)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:497)
    at sun.rmi.server.UnicastServerRef.dispatch(UnicastServerRef.java:323)
    at sun.rmi.transport.Transport$1.run(Transport.java:200)
    at sun.rmi.transport.Transport$1.run(Transport.java:197)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at sun.rmi.transport.Transport.serviceCall(Transport.java:196)
    at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPTransport.handleMessages(TCPTransport.java:568)
    at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPTransport$ConnectionHandler.run0(TCPTransport.java:826)
    at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPTransport$ConnectionHandler.lambda$run$254(TCPTransport.java:683)
    at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPTransport$ConnectionHandler$Lambda$2/1100410420.run(Unknown Source)
    at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
    at sun.rmi.transport.tcp.TCPTransport$ConnectionHandler.run(TCPTransport.java:682)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1142)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:617)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:745)

E aqui está o arquivo applicationContext.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<beans xmlns="http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans"
    xmlns:context="http://www.springframework.org/schema/context"
    xmlns:mvc="http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/beans/spring-beans-3.0.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/context/spring-context-3.0.xsd
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc
        http://www.springframework.org/schema/mvc/spring-mvc-3.0.xsd">
    <context:component-scan base-package="com.mkyong.common.controller" />
    <mvc:annotation-driven />
</beans>

Eu já tentei remover a primeira linha, ainda tenho o mesmo erro.

A propósito, aqui está o meu arquivo pom.xml (eu já verifiquei as versões do framework Spring):

<properties>
    <spring.version>3.0.5.RELEASE</spring.version>
</properties>
<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-core</artifactId>
        <version>${spring.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-web</artifactId>
        <version>${spring.version}</version>
    </dependency>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-webmvc</artifactId>
        <version>${spring.version}</version>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

Tentei recarregar as dependências do maven, tentei com várias coisas (por exemplo, um arquivo applicationContext.xml vazio), mas sempre me dá o mesmo erro. O aplicativo nem aparece no gerenciador do tomcat.

Alguns podem me indicar a direção certa para corrigir esse erro?