Using XMLC without Compiling Classes

We are using a servlet based, proprietary template language (somewhat
similar to velocity) which generates XHTML. For each page requested, the
framework allows you to write Java code which can then manipulate the DOM,
right before it gets sent to the browser. I was hoping to use XMLC (or a
different tool) to help manipulate the DOM. I have a lot of alternatives,
but these are the ones I have thought of so far:

I can just make DOM calls, I can write a SAX processer, I can translate the
DOM into JDOM or I can use JXPath.

Am I right in assuming that without running the XMLC Java class generator,
there is little I can get from XMLC? I would love to run the generator, but
I'm afraid it wouldn't work in our environment. Are there other alternatives
that might make my life easier? Does anyone know of tools out there
specifically aimed at manipulating the XHTML DOM without accessing the
source HTML file?
Thanks,
Ross