A body of Greek mercenaries in the service of the Sultans of Turkey from the fifteenth to the early nineteenth centuries. Armed Neutrality. A league of the northern nations of Europe, formed under the leadership of Prussia and Russia in 1870, to contest the right of search exercised by British ships of war over neutrals. The contentions of the league were that the flag covers the merchandise, except in the case of contraband of war, and that a blockade must be effective to be respected. Armenian Massacres. In 1895 and 1896 terrible massacres of the Armenians took place in Anatolia, at the hands of the Kurds, who were probably aided, and certainly not hindered, by the regular Turkish garrison. In 1896, on the ground that a dangerous conspiracy was on foot, the authorities connived at a massacre of Armenians in Constantinople, in which over two thousand are believed to have perished. This produced a strong joint protest from the Powers, followed by the re-establishment of some semblance of order in the disturbed districts. Arminians. The followers of Arminius, a Leyden professor, in the early part of the seventeenth century, who dissented from the strict Calvinism of the Dutch Protestants, and endeavoured to introduce a milder system. By a decree of the Synod of Dort, in 1618, the Arminian preachers were banished, while the Great Pensioner, Barneveldt, the chief lay supporter of the sect, was executed. The English High Church party in the reign of Charles I were sometimes called Arminians. Army Plot. An abortive conspiracy in the army, in 1641, under Wilmot, the Commissary-General, formed, with the connivance of Charles I, to overawe the Parliament. Goring, one of the ringleaders, becoming dissatisfied, betrayed the plot to Pym, but by that time the conspirators had already decided against active measures. Army Purchase. The system of purchase of commissions in the army was abolished by an Act of Parliament introduced by Mr. Cardwell in 1871. Arrabiati. The party of the Medici, during the existence of the Florentine Republic, established in 1493. Arras, Congress of. The first instance of a congress of the European Powers, held at Arras in 1435. All the leading States were represented, and an attempt was made to settle the peace of Europe, but the rival claims of France and England, the two countries most immediately concerned, proved irreconcilable, and no solution was arrived at. Arras, Treaty of. During the Congress of Arras, in 1435, France succeeded in detaching Burgundy from the English alliance, and a treaty was signed by which the Duke of Burgundy acknowledged the sovereignty of Charles VII, but stipulated that he himself should be freed from personal homage during his own and Charles’ lifetime. In return his claim was admitted to the Boulonnais, and he received Mâcon, Arcis-sur-Aube and Auxerre. Burgundy renounced the English alliance, and France that of the Emperor. Arrière Fief.