diff --git a/lib/liquid/template.rb b/lib/liquid/template.rb
index 3e62765..a596bf8 100644
--- a/lib/liquid/template.rb
+++ b/lib/liquid/template.rb
@@ -14,6 +14,10 @@ module Liquid
   #   template.render('user_name' => 'bob')
   #
   class Template
+    DEFAULT_OPTIONS = {
+      :locale => I18n.new
+    }
+
     attr_accessor :root, :resource_limits
     @@file_system = BlankFileSystem.new
 
@@ -68,7 +72,7 @@ module Liquid
     # Parse source code.
     # Returns self for easy chaining
     def parse(source, options = {})
-      @root = Document.new(tokenize(source), options)
+      @root = Document.new(tokenize(source), DEFAULT_OPTIONS.merge(options))
       @warnings = nil
       self
     end
@@ -79,7 +83,7 @@ module Liquid
     end
 
     def registers
-      @registers ||= {:locale => Liquid::I18n.new}
+      @registers ||= {}
     end
 
     def assigns
diff --git a/test/liquid/template_test.rb b/test/liquid/template_test.rb
index 8f3a6fc..939d4e8 100644
--- a/test/liquid/template_test.rb
+++ b/test/liquid/template_test.rb
@@ -144,17 +144,16 @@ class TemplateTest < Test::Unit::TestCase
     assert_equal 'haha', t.parse("{{baz}}").render(drop)
   end
 
-  def test_sets_default_localization_in_context
+  def test_sets_default_localization_in_document
     t = Template.new
-    assert_instance_of I18n, t.registers[:locale]
+    assert_instance_of I18n, t.root.options[:locale]
   end
 
   def test_sets_default_localization_in_context_with_quick_initialization
     t = Template.new
-    t.registers[:locale] = I18n.new(fixture("en_locale.yml"))
-    t.parse('{{foo}}')
+    t.parse('{{foo}}', locale: I18n.new(fixture("en_locale.yml")))
 
-    assert_instance_of I18n, t.registers[:locale]
-    assert_equal fixture("en_locale.yml"), t.registers[:locale].path
+    assert_instance_of I18n, t.root.options[:locale]
+    assert_equal fixture("en_locale.yml"), t.root.options[:locale].path
   end
 end