diff --git a/application/config/application.php b/application/config/application.php
index efe0b20a..adc39017 100644
--- a/application/config/application.php
+++ b/application/config/application.php
@@ -29,6 +29,18 @@
 
 	'language' => 'en',
 
+	/*
+	|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+	| Application Character Encoding
+	|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
+	|
+	| This default character encoding used by your application. This is the
+	| character encoding that will be used by the Str, Text, and Form classes.
+	|
+	*/
+
+	'encoding' => 'UTF-8',
+
 	/*
 	|--------------------------------------------------------------------------
 	| Application Timezone
diff --git a/system/form.php b/system/form.php
index ddbe2b5c..b596216c 100644
--- a/system/form.php
+++ b/system/form.php
@@ -22,12 +22,12 @@ public static function open($action = null, $method = 'POST', $attributes = arra
 
 		$action = URL::to($action);
 
-		$attributes['action'] = $action;
+		$attributes['action'] = HTML::entities($action);
 		$attributes['method'] = ($method == 'GET' or $method == 'POST') ? $method : 'POST';
 
 		if ( ! array_key_exists('accept-charset', $attributes))
 		{
-			$attributes['accept-charset'] = 'UTF-8';			
+			$attributes['accept-charset'] = Config::get('application.encoding');			
 		}
 
 		$html = '<form'.HTML::attributes($attributes).'>';
@@ -142,7 +142,7 @@ public static function submit($value, $attributes = array())
 	 */
 	public static function button($value, $attributes = array())
 	{
-		return '<button'.HTML::attributes($attributes).'>'.$value.'</button>'.PHP_EOL;
+		return '<button'.HTML::attributes($attributes).'>'.HTML::entities($value).'</button>'.PHP_EOL;
 	}
 
 	/**
@@ -221,7 +221,7 @@ public static function textarea($name, $value = '', $attributes = array())
 			$attributes['cols'] = 50;
 		}
 
-		return '<textarea'.HTML::attributes($attributes).'>'.Str::entities($value).'</textarea>'.PHP_EOL;
+		return '<textarea'.HTML::attributes($attributes).'>'.HTML::entities($value).'</textarea>'.PHP_EOL;
 	}
 
 	/**
@@ -243,10 +243,10 @@ public static function select($name, $options = array(), $selected = null, $attr
 		{
 			$option_attributes = array();
 
-			$option_attributes['value'] = $value;
+			$option_attributes['value'] = HTML::entities($value);
 			$option_attributes['selected'] = ($value == $selected) ? 'selected' : null;
 
-			$html_options[] = '<option'.HTML::attributes($option_attributes).'>'.$display.'</option>';
+			$html_options[] = '<option'.HTML::attributes($option_attributes).'>'.HTML::entities($display).'</option>';
 		}
 
 		return '<select'.HTML::attributes($attributes).'>'.implode('', $html_options).'</select>'.PHP_EOL;
diff --git a/system/html.php b/system/html.php
index fa8a35f7..f044234b 100644
--- a/system/html.php
+++ b/system/html.php
@@ -2,6 +2,17 @@
 
 class HTML {
 
+	/**
+	 * Convert HTML characters to entities.
+	 *
+	 * @param  string  $value
+	 * @return string
+	 */
+	public static function entities($value)
+	{
+        return htmlentities($value, ENT_QUOTES, Config::get('application.encoding'), false);
+	}
+
 	/**
 	 * Generate a JavaScript reference.
 	 *
@@ -10,7 +21,7 @@ class HTML {
 	 */
 	public static function script($url)
 	{
-		return '<script type="text/javascript" src="'.trim(URL::to($url), '.js').'.js"></script>'.PHP_EOL;
+		return '<script type="text/javascript" src="'.trim(static::entities(URL::to($url)), '.js').'.js"></script>'.PHP_EOL;
 	}
 
 	/**
@@ -21,7 +32,7 @@ public static function script($url)
 	 */
 	public static function style($url, $media = 'all')
 	{
-		return '<link href="'.trim(URL::to($url), '.css').'.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="'.$media.'" />'.PHP_EOL;
+		return '<link href="'.trim(static::entities(URL::to($url)), '.css').'.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" media="'.$media.'" />'.PHP_EOL;
 	}
 
 	/**
@@ -35,7 +46,7 @@ public static function style($url, $media = 'all')
 	 */
 	public static function link($url, $title, $attributes = array(), $https = false)
 	{
-		return '<a href="'.URL::to($url, $https).'"'.static::attributes($attributes).'>'.Str::entities($title).'</a>';
+		return '<a href="'.static::entities(URL::to($url, $https)).'"'.static::attributes($attributes).'>'.static::entities($title).'</a>';
 	}
 
 	/**
@@ -71,7 +82,7 @@ public static function mailto($email, $title = null, $attributes = array())
 			$title = $email;
 		}
 
-		return '<a href="&#109;&#097;&#105;&#108;&#116;&#111;&#058;'.$email.'"'.static::attributes($attributes).'>'.$title.'</a>';
+		return '<a href="&#109;&#097;&#105;&#108;&#116;&#111;&#058;'.$email.'"'.static::attributes($attributes).'>'.static::entities($title).'</a>';
 	}
 
 	/**
@@ -95,8 +106,8 @@ public static function email($email)
 	 */
 	public static function image($url, $alt = '', $attributes = array())
 	{
-		$attributes['alt'] = Str::entities($alt);
-		return '<img src="'.URL::to($url).'"'.static::attributes($attributes).' />';
+		$attributes['alt'] = static::entities($alt);
+		return '<img src="'.static::entities(URL::to($url)).'"'.static::attributes($attributes).' />';
 	}
 
 	/**
@@ -164,7 +175,7 @@ private static function list_elements($type, $list, $attributes)
 
 		foreach ($list as $key => $value)
 		{
-			$html .= '<li>'.Str::entities($value).'</li>';
+			$html .= '<li>'.static::entities($value).'</li>';
 		}
 
 		return '<'.$type.static::attributes($attributes).'>'.$html.'</'.$type.'>';
@@ -184,7 +195,7 @@ public static function attributes($attributes)
 		{
 			if ( ! is_null($value))
 			{
-				$html[] = $key.'="'.Str::entities($value).'"';
+				$html[] = $key.'="'.static::entities($value).'"';
 			}
 		}
 
diff --git a/system/str.php b/system/str.php
index 5a0415eb..17370e7f 100644
--- a/system/str.php
+++ b/system/str.php
@@ -2,13 +2,6 @@
 
 class Str {
 
-    /**
-     * The default encoding.
-     *
-     * @var string
-     */
-    private static $encoding = 'UTF-8';
-
 	/**
 	 * Convert HTML characters to entities.
 	 *
@@ -17,7 +10,7 @@ class Str {
 	 */
 	public static function entities($value)
 	{
-        return htmlentities($value, ENT_QUOTES, static::$encoding, false);
+        return htmlentities($value, ENT_QUOTES, Config::get('application.encoding'), false);
 	}
 
     /**
@@ -28,7 +21,7 @@ public static function entities($value)
      */
     public static function lower($value)
     {
-        return function_exists('mb_strtolower') ? mb_strtolower($value, static::$encoding) : strtolower($value);
+        return function_exists('mb_strtolower') ? mb_strtolower($value, Config::get('application.encoding')) : strtolower($value);
     }
 
     /**
@@ -39,7 +32,7 @@ public static function lower($value)
      */
     public static function upper($value)
     {
-        return function_exists('mb_strtoupper') ? mb_strtoupper($value, static::$encoding) : strtoupper($value);
+        return function_exists('mb_strtoupper') ? mb_strtoupper($value, Config::get('application.encoding')) : strtoupper($value);
     }
 
     /**
@@ -50,7 +43,7 @@ public static function upper($value)
      */
     public static function title($value)
     {
-        return (function_exists('mb_convert_case')) ? mb_convert_case($value, MB_CASE_TITLE, static::$encoding) : ucwords(strtolower($value));
+        return (function_exists('mb_convert_case')) ? mb_convert_case($value, MB_CASE_TITLE, Config::get('application.encoding')) : ucwords(strtolower($value));
     }
 
     /**