In December, fifty-three peninsulars were banished to Salta, and the decision was sent to the Junta for approval. The vocal Domingo Matheu, who had business associations with Tulla and Pedro Salvador Casas, arranged the annulment of the act, arguing that Castelli had been influenced by slander and unfounded accusations. Support for Castelli began to decline, mainly due to the favourable treatment of natives and the determined opposition of the church, which attacked the public atheism of Bernardo Monteagudo, Castelli's secretary. Both royalists in Lima and Saavedra in Buenos Aires compared them with Maximilien Robespierre, leader of the Reign of Terror of the French Revolution.