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This study details some cases where sixteenth-century people viewed radical religious reformers as similar to accused witches, misconstruing Anabaptist ideas and practices as magical or demonic. Specifically examined are rumours circulating about the Dutch Anabaptist and spiritualist David Joris (c. 1501-56), including that he could speak with animals and that his followers had preserved his corpse in order to receive special power. These illustrate that Joris could be conceived as a religious sorcerer. Judging from his writings on witchcraft, Venusberg and alchemy, Joris was indeed enmeshed in the magical worldview of his day. He regarded himself as a spiritual magus who gained his special knowledge not through crass magical means, which he rejected, but by immediate contact with God. His unusual position may have encouraged a magical interpretation of his person, while ultimately it contributed to the development of an anti-magical perspective of the cosmos.