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The most widely known defender of Montanists was undoubtedly Tertullian, onetime champion of orthodox belief, who believed that the new prophecy was genuine and began to fall out of step with what he began to call "the church of a lot of [[bishops]]" (On Modesty).
Although the Orthodox Christian church prevailed against Montanism within a few generations, elements of Montanism persisted. Inscriptions in the Tembris valley of northern Phrygia, dated between 249 and 279, openly proclaim their allegiance to Montanism. A letter of St. [[Jerome]] to Marcella, written in 385, refutes the claims of Montanists who had been troubling her (letter 41). A group of "Tertullianists" continued to exist at Carthage. The anonymous author of ''Praedestinatus'' records that a preacher came to Rome in 388 where he made many converts and obtained the use of a [[church]] for his congregation on the grounds that the [[martyrs]] to whom it was dedicated had been Montanists. He was obliged to flee after the victory of [[Theodosius the Great]] who supported the Orthodox belief. [[Augustine of Hippo|Augustine]] records that the Tertullianist group dwindled to almost nothing in his own time, and that the remnant of the group finally was reconciled to the church and surrendered their [[basilica]]. It is not certain whether these Tertullianists were Montanist or not.
In the sixth century, John of Ephesus, at the orders of the emperor Justinian, led an expedition to Pepuza to destroy the Montanist shrine there, which was formed around the tombs of Montanus, Priscilla, and Maximilla.
