The premise this was around for an extended time is questionable. If anything it shows how quickly false doctrine can infiltrate Christianity.
Paul certainly warned about it. That was really early in church history.
The fragment dates to 250 but, as Fr. Longenecker notes, "if this hymn to the Virgin dates from 250 AD we can deduce that it must be a written record of an earlier practice. Think about it, by the time something is written down for use in the liturgy it must already have been in use for some time. Furthermore, if this prayer is part of a document that is a copy of another document, then this also indicates that the actual practice is earlier than the manuscript itself."
The New Testament includes warnings against false teaching that was already affecting the churches. And there are plenty of heretical documents that go back before 250 AD. The oldest list of NT books dates to 170 AD, trying to combat false letters and gospels.
One of the best known was The Shepherd of Hermas: “A autobiographical tale about a certain Hermas who is visited by an angelic Pastor (Shepherd), who imparts some legalistic teaching to him in the form of an allegory. Written probably in Rome around A.D. 100.”
http://www.bible-researcher.com/canon5.html#shepherd