diff --git a/.gitignore b/.gitignore
index f390c6cf..3dec3348 100644
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@@ -8,3 +8,4 @@
 .refcache
 venv/
 draft-ietf-acme-acme.xml
+lib
diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
deleted file mode 100644
index b20fa617..00000000
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,3 +0,0 @@
-[submodule "lib"]
-	path = lib
-	url = https://github.com/martinthomson/i-d-template
diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 0dbd18a4..43a20f55 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -3,7 +3,6 @@ sudo: false
 addons:
   apt:
     packages:
-     - python-lxml
      - python-pip
 
 install:
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index e07b17f2..eff13430 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,4 +1,9 @@
 include lib/main.mk
 
 lib/main.mk:
+ifneq (,$(shell git submodule status lib 2>/dev/null))
+	git submodule sync
 	git submodule update --init
+else
+	git clone --depth 10 -b master https://github.com/martinthomson/i-d-template.git lib
+endif
diff --git a/circle.yml b/circle.yml
index 5459be0d..2e14922e 100644
--- a/circle.yml
+++ b/circle.yml
@@ -6,8 +6,6 @@ machine:
 
 checkout:
   post:
-    - git submodule sync
-    - git submodule update --init
     - git fetch origin gh-pages --depth 10
 
 dependencies:
diff --git a/lib b/lib
deleted file mode 160000
index c33e87d7..00000000
--- a/lib
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1 +0,0 @@
-Subproject commit c33e87d7af56bedd3680b2b0137ff09bfea36c66