Background

Hugues de Pairaud (Visitor of the Temple) was one of the leaders of the Knights Templar

Knights Templar

The Poor Fellow-Soldiers of Christ and of the Temple of Solomon , commonly known as the Knights Templar, the Order of the Temple or simply as Templars, were among the most famous of the Western Christian military orders...

. He and Geoffroi de Gonneville (the Preceptor of Aquitaine) were sentenced to life imprisonment

Life imprisonment

Life imprisonment is a sentence of imprisonment for a serious crime under which the convicted person is to remain in jail for the rest of his or her life...

 on March 18, 1314. They were spared the fate of Jacques de Molay

Jacques de Molay

Jacques de Molay was the 23rd and last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, leading the Order from 20 April 1292 until it was dissolved by order of Pope Clement V in 1312...

 (Grand Master) and Geoffroi de Charney (Preceptor of Normandy), who were both burned at the stake, because they accepted their sentence in silence.

In 1297 de Pairaud contested the election of Jacques de Molay as grand master.

In 1304 Pairaud supported Philip IV against Boniface VIII.

The charges

The charges brought against Hugues de Pairaud are similar to those brought against all the others during the Knights Templar Trial.
Pairaud was implicated in the worship of false idols by Raoul de Gizy, who claimed to have seen a mysterious head in seven Templar houses, some of them held by Hugues de Pairaud.
Pairaud was accused of taking Jean de Cugy "behind an altar and kissing him on the base of the spine and the navel." De Cugy also claimed that Pairaud had threatened him with life imprisonment if he did not deny Christ and spit on a cross, and that Pairaud had told him that it was permissible for brothers to have sexual intercourse with other brothers (sodomy

Sodomy

Sodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...

).