This ancient document is said to have been written by Alcuin of York (d.804) in the ninth century and it is a list of questions about the Apocalypse (Revelations) along with a set of answers. Alcuin was associated with Charlemagne's school called the Carolingian court, he worked there as a scholar at the invitation of Charlemagne himself.
Alcuin sees the seven seals in the Book of Revelations (Apocalypse) as being opened after Jesus had lived his life, died and rose again and returned to heaven. The first seal is seen as the start of the early church, the following three seals are seeing as wars against the church. The fifth seal is seen as the triumph of the church over its enemies, the sixth is seen as the time of the Antichrist and the seventh as the start of eternal life.
It is an interesting document yet it is quite short, it lacks the explanation of how each seal points to these events but simply points at the direction of their meaning. In a sense the wars against the church could be seen as the persecution by the Romans before the formation of the Roman Catholic Church, and the second could be when the crusades happened, but this would be simple speculation based upon brief words, which can be linked to other documents rather than being the origin of the ideals. However the idea that the Book of Revelations is fully prophetic of the future, rather than being an explanation of Jesus' life, lives on to this day and many people still view the Book of Revelations as a prophecy for the future and not the past.
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