According to the manuscript of John Bale's mid-16th century Index Britanniae Scriptorum [1]), he was a Doctor of Medicine and the author of Quaestiones on Isaac's liber febrium.
On 16 September 1275, however, Hugh was still in the Diocese of Worcester, for he received a mandate from the Bishop to proclaim the forthcoming ceremony of purgation of a criminal of his crime.
Hugh gained many benefices in the diocese of York,[7] and in 1279 was involved in the election of a successor to Archbishop Walter Gifford.
[12] Cardinal Hugh participated in the conclave of 1–2 April 1285, at Perugia, where he had found refuge after being driven out of Orvieto.
The plague broke out in the Conclave, and a number of cardinals died; the rest retreated for a time to their private residences.
The survivors finally elected a new pope on 22 February 1288, Cardinal Girolamo Masci d' Ascoli, OFM, the Bishop of Palestrina, who took the name Nicholas IV.
[15] Cardinal Hugh had lived at Orvieto, Perugia and Rome during the last years of his life, following the Pope and the Roman Curia, of which he was a leading member.