Freire permitted congress to promulgate a Constitution which in effect recognised the aristocracy as the dominant political element, but at heart he was a radical and an absolutist, and the document soon proved to be only so much waste paper. He showed his anti-clerical tendencies by refusing to come to any agreement with the Pope's representative, who arrived in 1824 charged with the reorganisation of the Chilean hierarchy. He summarily banished the Bishop of Santiago because of his royalist leanings, and issued decrees confiscating Church property. In 1825 he dissolved congress and for some months ruled frankly as a dictator. When he issued writs for a new national assembly he solemnly promised not to interfere in the elections, but so little confidence was felt that, outside of Santiago, no one participated and from there only a few members were returned. Freire soon quarreled with this rump parliament, and its dissolution was followed by political confusion in which parties became daily more sharply defined and acrimonious. There were "federalists," who advocated provincial assemblies; "pipiolas," who followed the strong liberal chief, General Pinto; "o'higginistas," who favoured the return of the former dictator; and finally the conservatives, nicknamed "pelucones" from the perukes--pelucas in Spanish--which old-fashioned Chilean gentlemen wore. Only the military power and prestige of Freire, coupled with his real abilities and resolution, prevented attempts at forcibly displacing him.