Saved by an Orb?

 In a Buddhist work quoted by two UFO researchers, we have the following account:

"At midnight one of Japan's greatest saints, Nichiren Shonin (1222-1282), was being escorted to the beach to be executed. Just before the fatal moment, a brilliant sphere as large as the moon flew over, illuminating the landscape. The authorities were so frightened by the apparition that they changed their minds about putting Shonin to death. Instead, they exiled him to Sado Island, though this did not prevent his teachings from spreading. A branch of his teachings, the Sokka-Gakkei, has millions of adherents throughout the world today."

The report below of a mysterious orb comes from 1837:

"During the night a luminous sphere was observed by local people. It came closer to the ground at dawn, illuminating the fields with an intense reddish glow."

In the same book we read this:

"Imagine that we have been transported back in time to Hamburg, Germany, on the 15th day of December in the year of the Lord 1547. Historian Simon Goulart, in his Tresors Admirables et Memorables de notre Temps (1600) writes that on that day the sailors who were aboard ships in the harbor of Hamburg saw in the air, at midnight, a glistening globe as fiery as the Sun."

On another page of the book we read of a Saint Benedict who "saw the soul of Germanus, Bishop of Capua, in a fiery globe to be carried up by Angels into heaven."  Another page of the book gives us this account from 1382:

"Before the Maillets uprising, a fiery flashing globe was seen for a period of eight days, 'roaming from door to door above the city of Paris, without there being any wind agitation nor lightning or noise of thunder, and on the contrary, the weather never ceased to be serene.' "

A 1433 report stated that "a luminous globe appeared in the air for several hours." We read that 11 years later in Italy the following occurred:

"Over three months multiple witnesses saw globes of light, golden in color, both inside and outside a church. The story by Don Massimo, a Benedictine monk, mentions that 'turning to the church he and his companions saw a globe as thick as a printing press.' "

We read that in 1650 "A luminous globe brighter than the Moon shed a vertical light on the city, and then it faded as it passed over the enemy camp."

From 1729 we have this account:

"Two hours prior to sunrise, M. Suen-Hof saw red vapors in the sky, which stretched in wide bands from north to south, then proceeded to gather together into a fiery globe about two feet in diameter. The globe kept moving in the same direction where the reddish vapors had appeared. It emitted sparks and was as bright as the sun. After moving through a quarter of the sky it disappeared abruptly, leaving thick black smoke and a burst of sound similar to cannon shot."

The same page tells us the next year someone saw "an amazing Globe of fire," as large as a building. In 1864 the following was reported in Florence, Italy. 

" 'A white globe of fire many times larger than the full moon seemed hanging almost motionless in the air.'  Shades of orange and blue passed over its surface. After a full minute it suddenly disappeared, vanishing on the spot. The witness adds: 'Only just before its disappearance a smaller ball was seen immediately below it, of a fiery orange colour, the first one appearing at that moment of the same hue"