Rome's second evasion, that Paul condemns only false angel-worship, fails: he forbids it outright
So the theologians of the Roman school fall back on another defense to protect their church's belief and practice against so explicit a law of the Apostle. The answer of most of them, and of the more learned, comes to this: the Apostle does not condemn the religious worship and invocation of angels or of saints, but only a false, superstitious and idolatrous worship and adoration, such as they say Simon Magus and Cerinthus and the followers of each taught.
But that is pure invention on their part, with no footing in the Apostle's words or teaching. Nowhere does he teach or so much as hint that there is a pious and lawful religion (threskeia) of angels and that he condemns only the excessive and idolatrous kind. He condemns the religion of angels plainly and as a whole.
So whatever errors the old heretics held about the nature, duties and worship of angels, that does not stop people today from breaking Paul's prohibition when they pursue angels with religious worship and offer any kind of threskeia to angels and saints. The Apostle forbids the threskeia of angels absolutely, not merely the kind Simon or Cerinthus are said to have offered them.
It is plain that those who worship angels and saints with vows, prayers, hymns, basilicas, oratories, feasts, gifts and offerings of every kind, as is the established custom in the Roman Church, do offer them threskeia. It follows that what the Roman Church does here is condemned by the Apostle no less than what Simon or Cerinthus, or any heretics like them, are reported to have done.
Latin
LXXXIV. Itaque alio recurrunt Scholae Romanae Theologi, ut Ecclesiae suae fidem & praxin adversus tam disertam Apostoli legem tueantur. Eo vero redit plurium & Doctiorum solutio, Apostolum non damnare religiosum cultum & invocationem Angelorum, vel Sanctorum; sed solum cultum & adorationem falsam, superstitiosam & idololatricam. Qualem docuisse dicunt Simonem Magum, & Cerinthum, ac utriusque Discipulos. Sed istud merum est eorum figmentum, quod in Apostoli verbis atque doctrina fundamentum nullum habet. Nec enim Apostolus ullo pacto docet aut innuit esse quandam Angelorum θρησκείαν, seu religionem piam atque licitam, se autem solum damnare illam quae immodica est & idololatrica. Sed simpliciter & in genere damnat religionem Angelorum. Proinde quicunque fuerint veterum haereticorum circa Angelorum naturam, officia & cultum, errores, id non obstat quominus Pauli interdictum violent etiam illi qui hodie religioso cultu Angelos prosequuntur, & θρησκείαν quamcunque Angelis & Sanctis exhibent; quandoquidem Apostolus θρησκείαν Angelorum absolute prohibet; non vero eam dontaxat quam Simon vel Cerinthus illis detulisse dicuntur. Manifestum est autem illos Angelos & Sanctos θρησκεύειν qui eos colunt votis, precibus, hymnis, basilicis, oratoriis, festis, donariis, & omnis generis oblationibus, ut in Ecclesia Romana solenne est: & consequenter quod facit hac in parte Ecclesia Romana ab Apostolo damnari, non minus quam quod fecisse traditur, vel Simon, vel Cerinthus, aut si qui fuerint similes haeretici.