From the 15th century onwards, the luxury and wantonness of many of the abbeys began to be proverbial, and many folk satires were spread abroad about them. Among these were anecdotes of the abbey lubbers, minor devils who were detailed to tempt the monks to drunkenness, gluttony and lasciviousness.

The best-known of these tales is that of Friar Rush, who was sent to work the final damnation of a wealthy abbey. He had very nearly succeeded in doing so when he was unmasked, conjured into the form of a horse by the Prior, and finally banished. He took other service, and behaved more like an ordinary Robin Goodfellow until the Prior again caught up with him and banished him to a distant castle. After their experience with Rush, the friars repented and took to virtuous living, so that their last state was better than their first. Rush worked mainly in the kitchen, but abbey lubbers as a rule haunted the wine cellar.

The Abbey Lubber has a lay colleague in the buttery Spirit, which haunted dishonestly-run inns, or households where the servants were wasteful and riotous or where hospitality was grudged to the poor.

There was a belief described by J.G.Campbell in his Superstitions of the Scottish Highlands that fairies and evil spirits only had power over goods that were unthankfully or grudgingly received or dishonestly gained. The Abbey Lubber and the Buttery Spirit must have owed their existence to this belief.