Original sentence: Later attempts to identify witches as pagan counselors depended upon speculative etymological connections rather than early textual descriptions of the witch as a benign figure.The earliest written reference to witches, from Aelfric's homilies , portrays witches as malign.The tendency to perceive them as healers begins with Jules Michelet whose novel La Sorciere first postulated a benign witch []
Edited sentence: Despite the modern tendency to recast witches as a persecuted pagan clergy who were perpetuating an old religion, there is no evidence for witches having originally been healers or counselors.Later attempts to identify witches as pagan counsellors have depended upon speculative etymological connections rather than any early textual description of a witch as a benign figure.No such description is known to exist.The earliest extant written reference to witches, from Aelfric's homilies , portrays them as wholly malign.The tendency to perceive them as healers begins with Jules Michelet, whose novel La Sorciere first postulated a benign witch []