diff --git a/RELEASE-NOTES.md b/RELEASE-NOTES.md
index 77e5dba6..b13cc595 100644
--- a/RELEASE-NOTES.md
+++ b/RELEASE-NOTES.md
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 ## 3.0-M4
 
-* #122 Upgrade Spring to 6.1.6
+* #122 Upgrade Spring to 5.3.34
 
 ## 3.0-M3
 
diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index fb9dd96b..c04aabfe 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -43,9 +43,9 @@
 
     <properties>
         <bootique.version>${project.version}</bootique.version>
-        <!-- TODO: we are bringing the entire huge Spring framework to just use
-            a few scheduling classes, and no injection -->
-        <spring.version>6.1.6</spring.version>
+        <!-- TODO: we are bringing the entire huge Spring framework to just use a few scheduling classes, and no injection -->
+        <!-- Note that Spring > 5 requires Java 17 -->
+        <spring.version>5.3.34</spring.version>
         <consul.client.version>1.5.3</consul.client.version>
         <okhttp.version>4.12.0</okhttp.version>
         <guava.version>33.1.0-jre</guava.version>