 Scotus studied philosophy and then theology at Oxford beginning some time in the 1280s. In the academic year 1298–99 he commented on the first two books of the Sentences of Peter Lombard. Scotus left Oxford for Paris, probably in 1302, and began lecturing on the Sentences again (we think in the order Book I, Book IV, Book II, Book III). In June 1303 Scotus was expelled from France along with eighty other friars for taking Pope Boniface VIII’s side in a dispute with King Philip IV of France. After Boniface died in October 1303 the king allowed the exiled students and masters to return, so Scotus could have returned in the late fall of 1303 to resume his lectures on the Sentences. Scotus became Doctor of Theology in 1305 and was Franciscan regent master at Paris in 1306–07. He was transferred to the Franciscan studium at Cologne, probably beginning his duties as lector in October 1307. He died there in 1308; the date of his death is traditionally given as 8 November.