diff --git a/build.gradle b/build.gradle
index 565a1be16d..98e64172c2 100644
--- a/build.gradle
+++ b/build.gradle
@@ -184,7 +184,6 @@ configure(allprojects) { project ->
 }
 
 configure(subprojects - project(":spring-build-src")) { subproject ->
-	apply plugin: "merge"
 	apply from: "${gradleScriptDir}/publish-maven.gradle"
 	apply plugin: "io.spring.dependency-management"
 
@@ -379,47 +378,6 @@ project("spring-core") {
 	}
 }
 
-project("spring-beans") {
-	description = "Spring Beans"
-
-	dependencies {
-		compile(project(":spring-core"))
-		compile(files(project(":spring-core").cglibRepackJar))
-		optional("javax.inject:javax.inject:1")
-		optional("org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-reflect:${kotlinVersion}")
-		optional("org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib:${kotlinVersion}")
-		optional("org.yaml:snakeyaml:1.18")
-		testCompile("org.apache.tomcat.embed:tomcat-embed-core:${tomcatVersion}")
-	}
-}
-
-project("spring-beans-groovy") {
-	description "Groovy Bean Definitions"
-
-	merge.into = project(":spring-beans")
-	apply plugin: "groovy"
-
-	dependencies {
-		compile(project(":spring-core"))
-		optional("org.codehaus.groovy:groovy-all:${groovyVersion}")
-	}
-
-	// This module's Java and Groovy sources need to be compiled together.
-	compileJava.enabled = false
-	sourceSets {
-		main {
-			groovy {
-				srcDir "src/main/java"
-			}
-		}
-	}
-
-	compileGroovy {
-		sourceCompatibility = 1.8
-		targetCompatibility = 1.8
-	}
-}
-
 project("spring-aop") {
 	description = "Spring AOP"
 
@@ -1110,23 +1068,6 @@ project("spring-framework-bom") {
 		repositories.mavenInstaller {
 			pom.whenConfigured {
 				packaging = "pom"
-				withXml {
-					asNode().children().last() + {
-						delegate.dependencyManagement {
-							delegate.dependencies {
-								parent.subprojects.sort { "$it.name" }.each { p ->
-									if (p.hasProperty("merge") && p.merge.into == null && p != project) {
-										delegate.dependency {
-											delegate.groupId(p.group)
-											delegate.artifactId(p.name)
-											delegate.version(p.version)
-										}
-									}
-								}
-							}
-						}
-					}
-				}
 			}
 		}
 	}
@@ -1151,7 +1092,6 @@ configure(rootProject) {
 
 	apply plugin: "groovy"
 	apply plugin: "io.spring.dependency-management"
-	// apply plugin: "detect-split-packages"
 	apply from: "${gradleScriptDir}/jdiff.gradle"
 	apply from: "${gradleScriptDir}/docs.gradle"
 
diff --git a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/springframework/build/gradle/DetectSplitPackagesPlugin.groovy b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/springframework/build/gradle/DetectSplitPackagesPlugin.groovy
deleted file mode 100644
index dc554fb229..0000000000
--- a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/springframework/build/gradle/DetectSplitPackagesPlugin.groovy
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,158 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * Copyright 2002-2013 the original author or authors.
- *
- * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
- * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
- * You may obtain a copy of the License at
- *
- *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
- *
- * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
- * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
- * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
- * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
- * limitations under the License.
- */
-
-package org.springframework.build.gradle
-
-import org.gradle.api.DefaultTask
-import org.gradle.api.GradleException
-import org.gradle.api.Plugin
-import org.gradle.api.Project
-import org.gradle.api.Task
-import org.gradle.api.tasks.Input
-import org.gradle.api.tasks.TaskAction
-
-
-/**
- * Gradle plugin that detects identically named, non-empty packages split across multiple
- * subprojects, e.g. "org.springframework.context.annotation" existing in both spring-core
- * and spring-aspects. Adds a 'detectSplitPackages' task to the current project's task
- * collection. If the project already contains a 'check' task (i.e. is a typical Gradle
- * project with the "java" plugin applied), the 'check' task will be updated to depend on
- * the execution of 'detectSplitPackages'.
- *
- * By default, all subprojects will be scanned. Use the 'projectsToScan' task property to
- * modify this value. Example usage:
- *
- *     apply plugin: 'detect-split-packages // typically applied to root project
- *
- *     detectSplitPackages {
- *         packagesToScan -= project(":spring-xyz") // scan every project but spring-xyz
- *     }
- *
- * @author Rob Winch
- * @author Glyn Normington
- * @author Chris Beams
- */
-public class DetectSplitPackagesPlugin implements Plugin<Project> {
-	public void apply(Project project) {
-		def tasks = project.tasks
-		Task detectSplitPackages = tasks.create("detectSplitPackages", DetectSplitPackagesTask.class)
-		if (tasks.asMap.containsKey("check")) {
-			tasks.getByName("check").dependsOn detectSplitPackages
-		}
-	}
-}
-
-public class DetectSplitPackagesTask extends DefaultTask {
-
-	private static final String JAVA_FILE_SUFFIX = ".java"
-	private static final String PACKAGE_SEPARATOR = "."
-	private static final String HIDDEN_DIRECTORY_PREFIX = "."
-
-	@Input
-	Set<Project> projectsToScan = project.subprojects
-
-	public DetectSplitPackagesTask() {
-		this.group = "Verification"
-		this.description = "Detects packages split across two or more subprojects."
-	}
-
-	@TaskAction
-	public void detectSplitPackages() {
-		def splitPackages = doDetectSplitPackages()
-		if (!splitPackages.isEmpty()) {
-			def message = "The following split package(s) have been detected:\n"
-			splitPackages.each { pkg, mod ->
-				message += " - ${pkg} (split across ${mod[0].name} and ${mod[1].name})\n"
-			}
-			throw new GradleException(message)
-		}
-	}
-
-	private Map<String, List<Project>> doDetectSplitPackages() {
-		def splitPackages = [:]
-		def mergedProjects = findMergedProjects()
-		def packagesByProject = mapPackagesByProject()
-
-		def projects = packagesByProject.keySet().toArray()
-		def nProjects = projects.length
-
-		for (int i = 0; i < nProjects - 1; i++) {
-			for (int j = i + 1; j < nProjects - 1; j++) {
-				def prj_i = projects[i]
-				def prj_j = projects[j]
-
-				def pkgs_i = new HashSet(packagesByProject.get(prj_i))
-				def pkgs_j = packagesByProject.get(prj_j)
-				pkgs_i.retainAll(pkgs_j)
-
-				if (!pkgs_i.isEmpty()
-						&& mergedProjects.get(prj_i) != prj_j
-						&& mergedProjects.get(prj_j) != prj_i) {
-					pkgs_i.each { pkg ->
-						def readablePkg = pkg.substring(1).replaceAll(File.separator, PACKAGE_SEPARATOR)
-						splitPackages[readablePkg] = [prj_i, prj_j]
-					}
-				}
-			}
-		}
-		return splitPackages;
-	}
-
-	private Map<Project, Set<String>> mapPackagesByProject() {
-		def packagesByProject = [:]
-		this.projectsToScan.each { Project p ->
-			def packages = new HashSet<String>()
-			p.sourceSets.main.java.srcDirs.each { File dir ->
-				findPackages(packages, dir, "")
-			}
-			if (!packages.isEmpty()) {
-				packagesByProject.put(p, packages)
-			}
-		}
-		return packagesByProject;
-	}
-
-	private Map<Project, Project> findMergedProjects() {
-		def mergedProjects = [:]
-		this.projectsToScan.findAll { p ->
-			p.plugins.findPlugin(MergePlugin)
-		}.findAll { p ->
-			p.merge.into
-		}.each { p ->
-			mergedProjects.put(p, p.merge.into)
-		}
-		return mergedProjects
-	}
-
-	private static void findPackages(Set<String> packages, File dir, String packagePath) {
-		def scanDir = new File(dir, packagePath)
-		def File[] javaFiles = scanDir.listFiles({ file ->
-			!file.isDirectory() && file.name.endsWith(JAVA_FILE_SUFFIX)
-		} as FileFilter)
-
-		if (javaFiles != null && javaFiles.length != 0) {
-			packages.add(packagePath)
-		}
-
-		scanDir.listFiles({ File file ->
-			file.isDirectory() && !file.name.startsWith(HIDDEN_DIRECTORY_PREFIX)
-		} as FileFilter).each { File subDir ->
-			findPackages(packages, dir, packagePath + File.separator + subDir.name)
-		}
-	}
-}
-
diff --git a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/springframework/build/gradle/MergePlugin.groovy b/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/springframework/build/gradle/MergePlugin.groovy
deleted file mode 100644
index 9c9e2f6be2..0000000000
--- a/buildSrc/src/main/groovy/org/springframework/build/gradle/MergePlugin.groovy
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,177 +0,0 @@
-/*
- * Copyright 2002-2015 the original author or authors.
- *
- * Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
- * you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
- * You may obtain a copy of the License at
- *
- *      http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0
- *
- * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
- * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
- * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
- * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
- * limitations under the License.
- */
-
-package org.springframework.build.gradle
-
-import org.gradle.api.*
-import org.gradle.api.artifacts.Configuration
-import org.gradle.api.artifacts.ProjectDependency;
-import org.gradle.api.artifacts.maven.Conf2ScopeMapping
-import org.gradle.api.plugins.MavenPlugin
-import org.gradle.plugins.ide.eclipse.EclipsePlugin
-import org.gradle.plugins.ide.idea.IdeaPlugin
-import org.gradle.api.invocation.*
-
-/**
- * Gradle plugin that allows projects to merged together. Primarily developed to
- * allow Spring to support multiple incompatible versions of third-party
- * dependencies (for example Hibernate v3 and v4).
- * <p>
- * The 'merge' extension should be used to define how projects are merged, for example:
- * <pre class="code">
- * configure(subprojects) {
- *     apply plugin: MergePlugin
- * }
- *
- * project("myproject") {
- * }
- *
- * project("myproject-extra") {
- *     merge.into = project("myproject")
- * }
- * </pre>
- * <p>
- * This plugin adds two new configurations:
- * <ul>
- * <li>merging - Contains the projects being merged into this project<li>
- * <li>runtimeMerge - Contains all dependencies that are merge projects. These are used
- * to allow an IDE to reference merge projects.</li>
- * <ul>
- *
- * @author Rob Winch
- * @author Phillip Webb
- */
-class MergePlugin implements Plugin<Project> {
-
-	private static boolean attachedProjectsEvaluated;
-
-	public void apply(Project project) {
-		project.plugins.apply(MavenPlugin)
-		project.plugins.apply(EclipsePlugin)
-		project.plugins.apply(IdeaPlugin)
-
-		MergeModel model = project.extensions.create("merge", MergeModel)
-		model.project = project
-		project.configurations.create("merging")
-		Configuration runtimeMerge = project.configurations.create("runtimeMerge")
-
-		// Ensure the IDE can reference merged projects
-		project.eclipse.classpath.plusConfigurations += [ runtimeMerge ]
-		project.idea.module.scopes.PROVIDED.plus += [ runtimeMerge ]
-
-		// Hook to perform the actual merge logic
-		project.afterEvaluate{
-			if (it.merge.into != null) {
-				setup(it)
-			}
-			setupIdeDependencies(it)
-		}
-
-		// Hook to build runtimeMerge dependencies
-		if (!attachedProjectsEvaluated) {
-			project.gradle.projectsEvaluated{
-				postProcessProjects(it)
-			}
-			attachedProjectsEvaluated  = true;
-		}
-	}
-
-	private void setup(Project project) {
-		project.merge.into.dependencies.add("merging", project)
-		project.dependencies.add("provided", project.merge.into.sourceSets.main.output)
-		project.dependencies.add("runtimeMerge", project.merge.into)
-		setupTaskDependencies(project)
-		setupMaven(project)
-	}
-
-	private void setupTaskDependencies(Project project) {
-		// invoking a task will invoke the task with the same name on 'into' project
-		["sourcesJar", "jar", "javadocJar", "javadoc", "install", "artifactoryPublish"].each {
-			def task = project.tasks.findByPath(it)
-			if (task) {
-				task.enabled = false
-				task.dependsOn(project.merge.into.tasks.findByPath(it))
-			}
-		}
-
-		// update 'into' project artifacts to contain the source artifact contents
-		project.merge.into.sourcesJar.from(project.sourcesJar.source)
-		project.merge.into.jar.from(project.sourceSets.main.output)
-		project.merge.into.javadoc {
-			source += project.javadoc.source
-			classpath += project.javadoc.classpath
-		}
-	}
-
-	private void setupIdeDependencies(Project project) {
-		project.configurations.each { c ->
-			c.dependencies.findAll( { it instanceof org.gradle.api.artifacts.ProjectDependency } ).each { d ->
-				d.dependencyProject.merge.from.each { from ->
-					project.dependencies.add("runtimeMerge", from)
-				}
-			}
-		}
-	}
-
-	private void setupMaven(Project project) {
-		project.configurations.each { configuration ->
-			Conf2ScopeMapping mapping = project.conf2ScopeMappings.getMapping([configuration])
-			if (mapping.scope) {
-				Configuration intoConfiguration = project.merge.into.configurations.create(
-					project.name + "-" + configuration.name)
-				configuration.excludeRules.each {
-					configuration.exclude([
-						(ExcludeRule.GROUP_KEY) : it.group,
-						(ExcludeRule.MODULE_KEY) : it.module])
-				}
-				configuration.dependencies.each {
-					def intoCompile = project.merge.into.configurations.getByName("compile")
-					// Protect against changing a compile scope dependency (SPR-10218)
-					if (!intoCompile.dependencies.contains(it)) {
-						intoConfiguration.dependencies.add(it)
-					}
-				}
-				def index = project.parent.childProjects.findIndexOf {p -> p.getValue() == project}
-				project.merge.into.install.repositories.mavenInstaller.pom.scopeMappings.addMapping(
-					mapping.priority + 100 + index, intoConfiguration, mapping.scope)
-			}
-		}
-	}
-
-	private postProcessProjects(Gradle gradle) {
-		gradle.allprojects(new Action<Project>() {
-			public void execute(Project project) {
-				project.configurations.getByName("runtime").allDependencies.withType(ProjectDependency).each{
-					Configuration dependsOnMergedFrom = it.dependencyProject.configurations.getByName("merging");
-					dependsOnMergedFrom.dependencies.each{ dep ->
-						project.dependencies.add("runtimeMerge", dep.dependencyProject)
-					}
-				}
-			}
-		});
-	}
-}
-
-class MergeModel {
-	Project project;
-	Project into;
-	List<Project> from = [];
-	
-	public void setInto(Project into) {
-		this.into = into;
-		into.merge.from.add(project);
-	}
-}
diff --git a/buildSrc/src/main/resources/META-INF/gradle-plugins/detect-split-packages.properties b/buildSrc/src/main/resources/META-INF/gradle-plugins/detect-split-packages.properties
deleted file mode 100644
index 10b1e4e981..0000000000
--- a/buildSrc/src/main/resources/META-INF/gradle-plugins/detect-split-packages.properties
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-implementation-class=org.springframework.build.gradle.DetectSplitPackagesPlugin
diff --git a/buildSrc/src/main/resources/META-INF/gradle-plugins/merge.properties b/buildSrc/src/main/resources/META-INF/gradle-plugins/merge.properties
deleted file mode 100644
index 9cef804165..0000000000
--- a/buildSrc/src/main/resources/META-INF/gradle-plugins/merge.properties
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-implementation-class=org.springframework.build.gradle.MergePlugin
diff --git a/settings.gradle b/settings.gradle
index ba6b848075..a01bc5ccce 100644
--- a/settings.gradle
+++ b/settings.gradle
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@ pluginManagement {
 include "spring-aop"
 include "spring-aspects"
 include "spring-beans"
-include "spring-beans-groovy"
 include "spring-context"
 include "spring-context-support"
 include "spring-context-indexer"
diff --git a/spring-beans/spring-beans.gradle b/spring-beans/spring-beans.gradle
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..603152f3be
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spring-beans/spring-beans.gradle
@@ -0,0 +1,33 @@
+description = "Spring Beans"
+
+apply plugin: "groovy"
+
+dependencies {
+	compile(project(':spring-core'))
+	optional("javax.inject:javax.inject:1")
+	optional("org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-reflect:${kotlinVersion}")
+	optional("org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib:${kotlinVersion}")
+	optional("org.yaml:snakeyaml:1.18")
+	optional("org.codehaus.groovy:groovy-all:${groovyVersion}")
+	testCompile("org.apache.tomcat.embed:tomcat-embed-core:${tomcatVersion}")
+}
+
+// This modules does joint compilation for Java and Groovy code,
+// with the compileGroovy task.
+sourceSets {
+	main.groovy.srcDirs += "src/main/java"
+	main.java.srcDirs = []
+}
+
+compileGroovy {
+	sourceCompatibility = 1.8
+	targetCompatibility = 1.8
+}
+
+// This module also builds Kotlin code and the compileKotlin task
+// naturally depends on compileJava.
+// We need to redefine dependencies to break task cycles.
+compileGroovy.dependsOn = compileGroovy.taskDependencies.values - 'compileJava'
+compileKotlin.dependsOn(compileGroovy)
+compileKotlin.classpath += files(compileGroovy.destinationDir)
+
diff --git a/spring-beans-groovy/src/main/groovy/org/springframework/beans/factory/groovy/GroovyDynamicElementReader.groovy b/spring-beans/src/main/groovy/org/springframework/beans/factory/groovy/GroovyDynamicElementReader.groovy
similarity index 100%
rename from spring-beans-groovy/src/main/groovy/org/springframework/beans/factory/groovy/GroovyDynamicElementReader.groovy
rename to spring-beans/src/main/groovy/org/springframework/beans/factory/groovy/GroovyDynamicElementReader.groovy
diff --git a/spring-beans-groovy/src/main/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/groovy/GroovyBeanDefinitionReader.java b/spring-beans/src/main/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/groovy/GroovyBeanDefinitionReader.java
similarity index 100%
rename from spring-beans-groovy/src/main/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/groovy/GroovyBeanDefinitionReader.java
rename to spring-beans/src/main/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/groovy/GroovyBeanDefinitionReader.java
diff --git a/spring-beans-groovy/src/main/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/groovy/GroovyBeanDefinitionWrapper.java b/spring-beans/src/main/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/groovy/GroovyBeanDefinitionWrapper.java
similarity index 100%
rename from spring-beans-groovy/src/main/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/groovy/GroovyBeanDefinitionWrapper.java
rename to spring-beans/src/main/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/groovy/GroovyBeanDefinitionWrapper.java
diff --git a/spring-beans-groovy/src/main/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/groovy/package-info.java b/spring-beans/src/main/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/groovy/package-info.java
similarity index 100%
rename from spring-beans-groovy/src/main/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/groovy/package-info.java
rename to spring-beans/src/main/java/org/springframework/beans/factory/groovy/package-info.java